Next: Train to St Louis

I had planned on going to St. Louis on Sunday. Chris and Meg's Sunday was looking busier and busier. Meg is RS president and had meetings all morning, Chris had to prepare a lesson and church was at 1:00. The only times the train ran was 8 am and 4 pm so I decided to take the morning train to St. Louis. I love to take the train, it is not as rushed, crowded and uncomfortable as flying. The scenery is better, It's cheaper than driving and no one has to spend 4 -8 hours in a car to get me.

I hadn't seen Matt and Erin's family since our cross country trip to North Carlonia last year. The kids have grown so much. We FaceTime almost weekly, but it is not the same as being there. I have missed their hugs and kisses and snuggling with them while reading, crafting or playing on the iPad. 

We went to the Butterfly House because it was an good indoor activity for a rainy day. I kept thinking I need to reread "The Girl of the Limberlost" as we spied hundreds of butterflies in a natural habitat  They also had a special orchid show throughout the house. The warm, tropical air felt really good on a chilly fall afternoon. This picture reminds me of the times I wanted to tell my kids "act like we're having fun, darn it!" 

There is also this cool cockroach bubble that they can view from the inside. The kids never get tired of popping up inside the bubble to be grossed out by the giant cockroaches. 

Matt was able to take a day off of work and we went to a Louis and Clark museum. This year I have been to the beginning of their journey in St Charles MO and to Salmon, Idaho, near the end of their explorations. Compared to our river trips, it is hard to imagine how arduous their journey must have been, especially considering how early in US history it was--1805. 

The morning I left for home I took some last minute pictures to keep me going until I see them again. 

Lily and Ian were making a race course around the basement and Lily made signs for the racers. Ian has a great imagination and Lily is quite the artist. 

And then there is Molly.  Horsing around on the merry go round next to the Butterfly House. 

Molly looked so cute in the sweater I gave her for her birthday.

It was such a wonderful trip. 

First, Kansas City

I got back last week from a trip to Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis to visit Chris, Matt and their families. It was a great trip and it was nice to visit them in their own homes. The grandkids are certainly more relaxed in familiar surroundings. 

I flew into Kansas City first. Meg and Maggie picked me up and we were home in time to meet Ezra and Travis at the bus stop. I was so happy that they are not too old to run up to me and give me a big hug in front of their friends. 

The first thing the kids wanted to show me was their Halloween costumes. Ezra is Percy Jackson, my kind of costume, a sword and new Percy Jackson t-shirt, Maggie is Elsa, one of Meg's piano student's grandmother made the dress, and Travis is Harry Potter, a whole new generation of kids is reading the books.

Megan, Maggie and I visited a couple of museums while the boys were in school that Meg wanted to see before they left KC next June. The Aribia Steamboat Museum tells the story of the white

Steamboat Arabia whose hull was pierced by a walnut tree snag near Kansas City on September 5, 1856. She carried 200 tons of cargo bound for settlements up the Missouri River.  Lost for 132 years, it was actually found deep in a corn field next to the river because the river had changed course since she sank. The exhibit was was filled with things, carefully restored, necessary for life on the western frontier.  Thousands of boots and shoes, china and kitchen supplies, farm implements, nails rusted together in the shape of the box they were in, cloth and sewing supplies, and even printing materials that were going to Council Bluffs for a magazine published by a member of the church. I was a little lustful of all the antiques displayed.

Of course spending time with Ezra, Travis and Maggie was the best. I went to soccer practices and Ezra's game. Watching Ezra play soccer reminded me of watching Matt play at the same age. A little painful. He was not totally engaged and agressive enough when he played.  Poor kid. Travis on the other hand could have played for hours. 

We made Halloween sugar cookies, it wasn't nearly as bad as I remember when I made them with my kids.  Grandmas must be more patient, or kids are better behaved for their grandmas or maybe I have picked up a few tricks along the way and frosting from hell to breakfast doesn't bother me the way it used to.

We also went to see Dr. Chris at his school. My son the dentist. He is using a $20,000 microscope that he had to buy for his residency, "the better to see your root canals, my dear." That's Ezra's teeth you see on the screen behind Chris.

You Know You're Getting Old

I was taking mom to see dad last week and I asked her how she was feeling.  As we talked about her various aches and pains she started asking me how I felt.  Before I knew it we were comparing notes on how we both were aging. Sigh. Mothers are supposed to get old, daughters aren't.

I found some pictures of mom and me as young women to make me feel better.

Mom's senior high school picture. I wish we did elegant  pictures when I was in high school.
My senior pictures are boring. 

1st year of married life.

Starry, Starry Nught

Thomas' wife Monica is a nurse in the post partum unit at LDS hospital. She got her RN at BYU Idaho right after high school, worked for a few years and then finished her bachelors last spring. When John asked her what kind of furniture he could build for a graduation present she asked if he would mind if I made her a quilt instead. I was happy to oblige. 

I asked her to look at patterns she liked on Pinterest and not surprisingly she was drawn to modern quilts with bright colors. She really liked this pattern from Fig Tree Quilts. 

I have never bought a quilt pattern before. I am more of a design as I go quilter, but decided to buy this one because Monica liked it so much. Plus I would never had designed something like this. It was totally out of my comfort range. 

Monica chose bright yellow, pink, orange and turquoise and lime green for the stars and grey for the background. We talked about white, but it gets dirty so fast. Grey is very modern and mom and other traditional quilters I talked to were skeptical. I made sample half blocks to audition color and practice!

The quilt was one of the more challenging quilts I have tried, even though the designer called it "easy". Not. There were more bias edges than I normally like to use. Younger quilters are not as concerned with bias edges as those of us who are traditionally trained.  They spray the block heavily with starch to keeps the bias from stretching. It worked, but still takes accurate piecing. I got better as I went along. 

I quilted it in concentric quarter circles, radiating out from one corner mimicking the feel of the stars as they travel ( or the earth turns) in the night sky, and titled the quilt Starry Starry Night". 

For the back I pieced in the grey practice block and an extra half block that didn't work for the for front and made a striped panel of the left over fabric because I didn't have enough of the polka dot fabric.

I think she likes it. 

37 Years

Happy anniversary to John dear, my eternal companion of 37 years. He gets better looking every year. 

We are in life jackets in most of the pictures taken of us together. I guess the old adage is true:  "The couple that plays together, stays together."

Flipped

We have been home from our 5 night six day Main Salmon river trip for over a week now. It was a wonderful, beautiful, smokey, fun, family filled adventure. Made even better because Jayne and Dave were able to join us from Arizona. 

After spending the night in Salmon, Idaho we got to the river put in in time for the campsite lottery at 9:00. It was kind of nice because John and I, acting as his interpreter for the hearing impaired, had to sign up for our campsites while every thing was being unloaded. John had very carefully planned our campsites according to the daily mileage we needed for the 84 mile trip. There were 3 other groups launching when we did who were also vieing for campsites The rangers then assigned campsites according to need, group size, we had 20 in our group, and availability. If there was a conflict, it was decided by a coin toss. Surprisingly, we actually won the coin toss for one of our sites. There are also numerous non reservable campsites along the river that anyone can use. 

We had 7 rafts to fill with our gear for our group. 

Jayne, Dave John and I were on our boat; 

Thomas, Monica, Kili and Annie on the second 

Brett, Kerri, and Mckenna on the third; 

Roark, Tice and Caleb on the fourth; 

Roger and Rachel on the fifth.

 Brad, Colleen and Lauren Nye on the sixth and Aaron Nye and his friend Cory on the seventh. 

The first day was perfect, warm and sunny with fun rapids. We camped at Motor camp, named for the old motor rusting away in the middle of camp. 

Then the smoke started pouring in from wild fires in the area. The canyon gets regular summer fires caused by lightening strikes. There are burned tress all along the river corridor. 

At one point we could see flames in the rugged terrain. The Main Salmon used to be called the River of No Return because once you launched you were committed, the canyon was too steep and isolated to climb out. We did see a few fire fighters, but they were mainly there to protect property not contain the fire.

Our campsite was smoky with ash and charred pine needles raining upon us. I have to admit we were a little concerned the fire was getting too close. But we were told that anytime there is a fire the river corridor get filled with smoke, kind of like an inversion in the Salt Lake Valley. 

The sunset was eerily beautiful that night. The smoke stayed with us for two more days making for hazy sureal conditions.

The landing for Hainey camp was almost half taken up by this huge yellow pine that recently fallen. That night our boat's crew made John's favorite, Dutch oven lasagna, times two. It was all eaten, Tice even scraped the foil clean. I eat better on the river than I do at home. 5 wonderful dinners and I only had to plan and cook one!

Thomas even made cinnamon rolls.

The river had fun rollor coaster rapids with only a few to worry about. Some of those we scouted. 

Like Black canyon rapid. 

Others were read and run. Jayne got dumped on a just such a rapid. She fell overboard and held onto the boat, but she was between it and a huge boulder in a recirculating wave. Dave pulled her in and John was able to get the boat out of the wave after we circled around a few times. It  scared both of them just a bit. 

But the biggie was Vinegar Rapid, the last rapid a few miles before takeout. They scouted it and figured the run they wanted to take. For some reason our boat got too far left and before we knew it we were in the hole and flipped!  Just like that. Now I have to admit that flipping has always been one of my biggest fears on the river. Anxiety inducing fear. As we went in the hole, I heard John yell, "oh crap" and I was in the was in the middle of the rapid. I held on to the upside down raft and rode the rapid. The waves went over my head, but I knew I was ok. I wasn't scared. Just worried that everyone else was ok. Especially John. I knew he would be mad. The other rafts converged around us and I heard every checking to make sure we were all there.  David emerged under the raft, but calmly made it out, Jayne and I were thrown out on opposite sides and John was hit in the head with an oar. He had a pretty good shiner, a couple of abrasions and a small cut on the side of his nose, but no stitches were needed even though Roark had restocked his medical kit for this trip. 

Then the most awesome thing happened. Thomas, McKenna and Tice were on the over turned raft within minutes, got their flip lines tied to the boat, walked them back using their weight as leverage and flipped the raft back over. Slick as a whistle. Rachel said that as the three up came out of the water they had ecstatic grins on their faces. It worked! And we were ready to go. The only thing we lost were a river map and Jayne's prescription sunglasses.

As an end to a river trip, it wasn't stellar for John.  He felt bad and was mad at himself. Thomas tried to tell him how well the group recovered. We were on our way within 15 minutes of flipping the raft, with minor injuries and loss. That, Thomas said, is the mark of a well planned and well trained trip. The saying goes "if you run rivers, it's not if you flip, but when." 

One incident does not make a trip. I don't think my anxiety will go away because I flipped and survived. But it can't compare to the memories and images that remain.  

Like this. Time spent with Jayne. Not all 58 year old women can say they have done this.

And we got to be with Annie, Thomas, Monica and Kili. 

And experience the breath taking beauty of the world. 

Bounty

I got back from our week long river trip on the Salmon River and this was waiting for me in the garden. 

Now what to do with all this bounty. Peach Salsa anyone?