Short Story Long

Yesterday afternoon, we headed up to my parents' house for a night away from home. The kids had a great time hiking around, looking for wildlife, and hanging out with Nana and Grandpa. And of course, a dip in the hot tub. We had great food and a great time! I tried to get in some knitting but the activities were constantly changing. I did get a bit of knitting done on the way there and the way back. BFJ's favorite thing was a nap in front of the window, with a cool breeze blowing in. I took a walk around the property with my dad and found some great photo spots that I had somehow missed before. I took lots of wildflower pictures, and also a few bugs, and hope to identify some of them. We took up a handful of big branches from the storm to add to my dad's furniture building business. By the way, thank you for all the comments on the storm and offers for help. Luckily, all we really ended up with was some extra yardwork and a renewed appreciation for the teamwork of neighbors...

(There's a house behind this tree.) It really is dark without electricity. I finally understand why people used to go to bed at sunset.

There are dozens of places to buy fabric and yarn these days - big craft chain stores, online, and the little boutiques. You can even recycle yarn and fabric by shopping at your local second-hand store. While I love the selection of shopping online, nothing beats the welcome of a friendly face, someone who can help you find just what you are looking for. I know where there are a few wonderful quilt shops, but being a new knitter, I haven't been to many yarn boutiques. I have begun to find that there are several in the Denver Metro area. Here are a few fun stops from the northwest area of town: Knit Knack 7505 Grandview Ave, Arvada , CO 80002 I first met Marly here, and this is our usual spot to meet up for picture days . Talk about great first impressions; this is the first knitting boutique I'd ever been to, and boy is it a good one! Owner Gerri has been a "capital K" Knitter for at least ten years. Gerri carries lots of Cascade, Berroco , and Classic Elite yarns, ...

My dad belongs to a group of buglers that performs Taps for military funerals. BFJ took the day off to watch the boys so that I could go with my dad to a service today. I wanted to get some pictures of him in his Army uniform. You can see the VFW Honor Guard in the background; they were a nice group of fellows, and said they usually attend between one and four services a week. They asked my dad if a beautiful escort was standard issue. Isn't that sweet :) While I was there, I took the opportunity to find the headstone of BFJ's maternal grandparents. As it turned out, they were only yards away, so I got some pictures of them for my genealogy files. There were incredible views all around, a fitting place to lay our veterans to rest.

This is my favorite holiday. Along with Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, the significance of this day is beyond compare. I think one of the reasons that I like the 4th of July so much is because my dad was an Army chaplain for many years. I'm glad I have had the privilege of attending funerals at Arlington National Cemetery , seeing a bit through his eyes, and getting a behind-the-scenes understanding of some of the traditions there. Thinking of the Arlington Ladies still chokes me up. We do live in the greatest country in the world, a country that cares about the freedom of the rest of the world, too, and is willing to do something about it. Zoom recently checked out a video from the library, (exercising his independence and his very own library card). His favorite movie is National Treasure so when he spied an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , he wanted to borrow it. I had seen ads about the museum's Ben Franklin exhibit implying that he was a nudist, so I fel...

In the past week, I have seen a funny movie with one of my sisters, taken some family photos for a friend, gone wedding dress shopping (not for me, of course), gone to a wedding, finished some socks, witnessed a hit-and-run accident, gone to a play , gone out to dinner with my mother-in-law, gone downtown, lots of weeding, lots of laundry, gone to knitting night, sat in on a podcast (sans microphone), picked our first pepper, lots of piecing, picked some more beans, made a horrible dinner, and pulled out a tooth! Whew! We've been busy. I hope you are enjoying your summer!