Catching up....

Has been a few days...OK months.... since I posted something new here.   

Was a busy summer... hubby was gone a few times for his Logistics Chief duties on Incident Management Team #5.  And he missed a couple fire trips in order to attend the annual family reunion, and a special trip to the Oregon coast.

Had a great summer of gardening.  Hubby did most of the work, and I got to harvest the goodies.  Love it!!

I planted a crazy row of Zinnias.  You don't have to harvest them; 

we just get to enjoy the colors!

Volunteer sunflowers grew 10-12 feet high. I love the happy sunflower faces!

Looking west in mid-July.  Pumpkins in the foreground, 

with zucchinis next, sunflowers, tomatoes and more!

We enjoyed a great few days at Seaside with our daughters and granddaughters.  For hubby's 60th birthdayr, our girls booked a nice rental home a few blocks from the ocean in our favorite area on the northern Oregon coast. 

The weather wasn't great, 

but the time with our kids and grandbabies was marvelous. 

Both the little girls love to read, 

thanks to mamas and daddies who read to them every day.

We used to camp at Ft. Stevens, and had to make a nostalgic trip 

to the south jetty.  Was WINDY and cold, but still a wonderful place.

The day before we left, the weather broke and we got to dig in the sand, 

walk the beach and enjoy the beauty of the Oregon coast.  Awesome!

Now the holiday season is in full swing, and I have several fun projects queued up.  Can't share cuz someone might see... :)

My outside white lights are up, but not turned on. I do think it must be time!!

And we had our first dusting of snow... snow shovels are out and firewood is waiting on the front porch.

Thanks for visiting!!


  

Christmas past.. Christmas future

Here are the felt Christmas stockings that my mom made (Dan, Melinda, Meghan, Erin) and the ones I made. (Mark, Nick, Makenna, Ada)  Sad to think of the family milestones my mom was not with us to celebrate.

My stocking is over 60 years old; Dan's was made in 1979, the year we got married.

I used trees and a campfire for Nick's, partly because they went backpacking on their first date, and they still camp and hike as often as they can. 
Ada's tree - decorated for Christmas - kind of matches her dad's.

Mark loves to snowboard, so the mittens and snowflakes seemed appropriate on his.  Makenna has a snowflake like her dad, and glittery Christmas ornaments.

Ready or not.... snow!

This weekend was my target for getting the outside lights in the trees, bushes and along the fence.  I wanted to get them up before it snowed.....but didn't make it.

I guess mid-November is as good a time as any for our first snow.  It was really coming down this morning, but we headed off to town, with a number of stops to make.  We were snow-covered by the time we reached the door of each store.  There were fewer shoppers out than I expected, which I appreciated!

We came home to three or so inches... had to push the shovel ahead of us on the walk to get to the door.  Later the sun came out and I got some pics of the bushes in back.

Looking south toward the pasture... .blue sky and snow.

A light-weight shovel makes cleaning the walk and parking pad a lot easier!

Here is a huge snowy tumbleweed, wedged up against the pasture fence.

Later today I hung icicle lights on the top barbed wire on the fence, and as the light faded and the sun went down, my white Christmas lights were reflecting off the snow.  Love it!