Snapshots of a family trip: a.k.a. City Girl goes to a Nebraska farm

We just got back from my husband's family reunion in Nebraska City, Nebraska. We spent the weekend at the Lied Lodge. I have to say, if you ever find yourself in Nebraska, this is worth checking out. It was founded by the Morton salt founder and it's the birthplace of Arbor Day! There is a huge farm (The Arbor Day Tree Farm), a forest with walking path, art displays and educational opportunities, plus a giant greenhouse where you can pick your free tree to take home and plant! I wish I had more pictures of those things (or any really), but I blame the heat and humidity. (Oh the heat & humidity!). They also had a little country store with fresh fruit and pies! (Oh the pies!). You could also snag free apples in the hotel lobby. Ruby and I loved that!

Part of the art displays in the forest.

Ruby says "I'm DONE with family pictures people!"

Look mom, mooooo cows!

After the reunion, we drove over to Guide Rock, Nebraska to visit the family farm. Matt's father and his three brothers grew up on the farm. His youngest brother still lives there, farming the 1800+ acres. He's got cattle, milo, hay, alfalfa and a few other things I'm sure.

His oldest daughter and her family also live on the farm. Ruby really enjoyed playing with her cousins, especially Lanee who's just 3 months older than her! Lanee showed her all around the farm and what it's like to be a toddler running free and wild on the farm!

That's the hubby and his uncle driving the swather. He's trimming the alfalfa. I drove it too. And Uncle Bruce said my lines were straighter! One point for the City Girl!

We also went on a cattle drive! Yes, I went on a cattle drive! It was so much fun! And really pretty! The farm was still pretty green despite that it was the end of July. There was even a little storm off in the back ground.

 We moved about 125 cattle from one pasture to another. I'm not sure of the acreage we covered, but it seemed liked a lot. Once the cows get moving, they get moving!

They hubby was bringing up the rear of the herd on an ATV, Ruby and I were in the truck with Uncle Bruce. But we got out to feed the cattle to help inspire them to follow us to greener pastures (ha!). Ruby had no problem being so close to these hundred pound animals, but Bruce's daschund Chubbie, he scared the heck out of her! She'd run around the house with Lanee saying, "Chubbie! Chuuuubbbbiiieeee!" and then when she found him, she'd stop point and start screaming. It was pretty funny.

Despite the heat, humidity and a few travel bumps on the way home (FYI, if you're ever in the Kearney "airport" the highlight is the fact that they have a Coke & a Pepsi machine which is useless to someone who doesn't drink soda by the way. We were there for nearly 4 hours.), it was a really fun trip!

this moment 7.26.13

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Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
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If you have a this moment, please leave the link in a comment, I'd love to see it!

The city goes on a cattle drive! In Nebraska! Yes....this actually happened, Tuesday to be exact. It was so much fun! Here I'm feeding the cows. Ruby also enjoyed seeing the cows up close. She kept saying "Moooo cows!" and throwing their treats at them.

I'll post more pics from the Nebraska trip shortly, along with many other catch up posts! 

Happy weekend!

F.O. Breckenridge Cowl & a weekend away

Somehow from all my blissed out relaxation time I forgot to blog about my knitting weekend retreat with my knitting group in early May. It's our annual trip to Port Townsend to stay in the officers housing at the military base of Fort Warden. (For all you movie trivia buffs, this is where they filmed an Officer and a Gentlemen. I should really watch the whole thing one day.)

It was a great time with great friends. A lot of knitting was done. I also went on many walks along the beach (basically right outside our front door!).

I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

We had a knitted gift exchange this year. The theme was an accessory that has cables or lace. Since I'm anti-knitting lace, I opted for cables. This is Breckenridge Cowl from French Press Knits. It was for Cara who loves jewel toned colors. Plus I thought it would look great with her beautiful red coat.

Erin had my name and I received a beautiful pair of pink cabled fingerless gloves which I don't have a picture of. You'll have to take my word that they are just lovely. 

As you can see, it was the perfect weekend for knitting and relaxing!

Quick Hits Thursday

• My last blog post on knitting here at the Knitting Knot was on July 2. And it was about my frustrations with my current projects. As the lack of blog posts - even knitting ones - show, there hasn't been a lot of creativity around here this summer.
• After many misses, I've finally hit on something good! I'm back to knitting with a lovely little project. It's top secret as it's a gift, but stay tuned, pictures are coming soon.
• I got a fabulous new camera for my birthday. I've been playing with and loving it so much! Expect more pictures soon of all sorts of stuff.
• I'm finally heading out of town for some much needed R & R! A road trip beckons to see family, friends and Yellowstone! I've never been there so I'm really excited! Also another reason I'm excited for my new camera!
• I think my garden is confused. You see the weather here in Seattle has been quite confusing/frustrating these days. We go from weekends where it's 60-something, no sun and rainy. To the next weekend of 90-something record breaking temps. And back again. I have lots of green little tomatoes but I have my doubts they'll ever turn red. Unless it's this next week when I'm out of town. 'Cause that's just my luck.
• I've been trying to eat local this summer. My current addiction is blackberries. I can't get enough  of them.
• See you in a little while - with lots of great pics!  I know you're excited! I am!

Self Portrait Series: Girls weekend in Vegas

Sara & I are pretty famous for our self portraits.

But we couldn't leave April out of the fun (or Ms. Green M & M)!

Poolside fun at the Wynn (in the shade with SPF 70 of course)!

We had a little help with this one.

 Sara and April figured out they've been friends for about 20 years. Good thing they've also known me for 17 of those years! 

It was a great weekend filled with lots of laughter, lots of memories and a lot of fun! I miss not seeing them everyday like back in college, or even about once a week when we were living in Boise, but I'll take a weekend like this anytime!

A few things both knitting & non-knitting

To say that it’s been a bit busy around here is a bit of an understatement. I’ve been wanting to blog for quite a while now, but haven’t had the time/energy/motivation/etc. So in true type-A personality form, I’m doing a list to sum up a few things. Here we go:

• My sister came for a visit. We had a blast getting pedicures, shopping for furniture (nothing bought but lots of ideas) and drinking margaritas on the patio in some rare Seattle spring sun.
• My parents came the following weekend; more family fun, day trips, fixing things up around the house.
  
• I scored some sweet deals and even sweeter yarn at the Fiber Gallery annual sale. Details on projects to come soon.
  
• I cast on for my first big sweater for myself. I’m making the Minimalist cardigan out of some beautiful pink wool. However, between the pattern and the yarn, it hurts my hands. Like really seriously hurts my hands. Like, it’s the reason I’m not knitting these days. I think I’ve averaged about 4 rows in about a month.
  
• I’m trying to decide to proceed slowly with the project or rip it out and find another project.
  
• In an effort to get knitting again, I’ve cast on for the Simple Shawl pattern. It’s quite pretty and painless. So far I’m on row 8 and all is well. Fingers crossed.
  
• And in an effort to truly relax and get some much needed R & R, I’m off to Vegas for a weekend of fun at the Wynn with my dear friends Sara and April.
  
• I hope to be back up and blogging and knitting much more often when I return, until then, here’s to some R & R for you, and of course, happy knitting.

No, I’m not going crazy, it’s for the tourists

In my last post I mentioned our road trip through the Olympic Peninsula. Well, if you’ve read any of the Twilight books you no doubt know, that’s the stomping ground of vampires and werewolves, at least according to Stephanie Meyer.


You have to give credit to the small town of Forks for trying to make a few bucks off of these books. Everywhere in the town is some sort of Twilight sign; hotels welcoming Twilighters, specials for Bella Burgers, etc. You can also visit not one, but two Dazzled by Twilight stores in town (if you’ve been to Forks you know how small it is so to have two of these stores is pretty amazing.)


Even Jacob’s stomping ground of La Push is in on the frenzy. La Push is even smaller than Forks mind you. As you enter the town, the little restaurant has a Pepsi banner that reads “No Vampires Beyond This Point.” You can also grab a coffee a Jacob’s Java. The town store is decorated in Team Jacob mania. Edward need not apply.


But the thing that had me doing a double take is the fact that as you drive into a town there is a house and separate garage that was painted red, complete with an old trailer in front. At first I thought, no….that couldn’t be. That place looks just like the scene of Jacob’s house in New Moon. As we drove out of town I looked again. This time I realized I wasn’t crazy, it was painted and designed to look like Jacob’s house. I knew this for sure because the Twilight Tour bus full of people was pulling in the driveway.


*For you Twilighters out there, I apologize for the lack of pictures of all of this stuff. I wanted to stop and take some but the hubby just shook his head and kept on driving. He claims to be on Team Mike Newton.

Weekend Get-A-Way

This past weekend the hubby and I took a little road trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We had lovely weather on Saturday and drove along the coast. We are so lucky that within a few hours of our house we can drive to the beach through and old growth rainforest.

The beach at La Push with a big storm blowing in.

The Hubby sitting at the base of the worlds largest Cedar tree. It was really freakin' big.

We stayed at the Lake Quinault Lodge. It’s charming, beautiful and pretty much perfect. With no t.v.’s, cell service or internet access it was just what we needed to unwind. This is the place where folks hang out with other guests in a big lobby complete with a fireplace, over stuffed leather couches, games and a bar. Once again, it was perfect.

Getting a little reading time in and enjoying the rare spring sunshine.

My gin & tonic and my view.....ahhhhhh.....

 

Sunday greeted us with the typical spring rainforest weather (wind, clouds and rain). Not being the uber serious hikers, we opted for drives instead of hikes. We continued to drive along the coast up to the Sul Duc Hot Springs Resort. We were in our own cabin which was a nice treat after enjoying the hot springs.


Monday we woke to snow in the mountains, fog and possible some of the worst sleet/hail I’ve seen in awhile, once again scraping our hiking plans. It did make for some pretty scenery however.


While we weren’t able to do a lot of the hikes that we wanted to try, we’ll be heading back for sure since it was such a lovely vacation!

 

I'm leavin' on a jet plane

My bags are packed.
My boarding pass is printed and ready to go.
And most importanly, a quicky, easy weekend knitting project is ready to be cast on once I get through security and make my way to the over priced airport bar. But it's a Friday and it's been a long week so there is a gin and tonic with my name on it.

I'm off to Boise this weekend for a quick visit with family and friends. Hopefully some good knitting will be done in the process!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend as well!

Nothing says I love you like handknit socks

The first sock for the Hubby took me nearly a year to knit. I was bored with it. There were lots of other knitting projects that kept pushing these socks to the bottom of the knitting bag. But then, I decided, enough was enough. I was tired of always looking at them. I wanted them done. So I set a deadline and then knit like a mad woman on a mission. A mission for handknit socks for Valentine's Day. And it worked.

Pattern: Simple Socks by Cat Bordi
Yarn: I started these things so freakin' long ago I don't remember.

I've been working on these socks for so long that the first one actually went to France with me last March. Here it is at the beach in Nice. I'm happy to report I wasn't the only woman knitting at the beach that day. Just more proof that I could easily live in France.

Orcas Island

Yes, it's that pretty and relaxing.

Off to Orcas Island!

The hubby and I are leaving for a quick weekend getaway to Orcas Island in the San Juans! I've never been there before so I'm excited to see it.

There will plenty of pictures to be posted when I get back. I've been a slacker (or really busy....I seem to run in two modes these days...superbusy/stressed to slacker/lazy as I try to recover) so I'll post pics for sure.

(It was another chaotic day and I don't think that last sentence makes sense but I honestly don't really care.)

Whew!

I'm trying to catch my breath here.

For the past few weeks, work has been totally crazy. Like insane crazy busy.

Between work stress and a busy vacation to N. Idaho, I haven't had time to catch up with knitting, blogging, reading, and sometimes life.

This weekend I'm off again, now to Boise to visit my family and see from friends and get some r & r! Well, the r & r is in the plan but we'll see how that goes too!

A blog update to come complete will all vacation pics and hopefully a few more knitting projects finished!

Family Fun in Nebraska City

The other weekend we traveled to Nebraska City, Nebraska for the hubby's annual family reunion. His family hails from Guide Rock, NE where his dad grew up on the family farm with his three younger brothers. They have the big reunion every two years at the Arbor Day Farm and Lied Lodge & Convention Center.

Did you know that Arbor Day originated in Nebraska City? By the Morton Salt guy? Yeah, me neither. The things you learn in Nebraska.

For example, the Arbor Day Farm and Lied Lodge was built to be an eco-friendly, sustainable resort before that was even trendy or the in-thing. The building uses no CFL's for their A/C (which is good thing because it was very hot in Nebraska in July!) There is also recycling in all rooms. Plus they use green laundry detergents and encourage guests to reuse towels and linens.

(Here's a pic of the beautiful Leid Lobby, pic from the Lied Lodge & Conference Center site)

There's plenty to do at the farm. We took the Tree Adventure tour which leads guests through the forest and provides all sorts of educational and fun information for kids and adults alike. Plus they had a fabulous art exhibit throughout the trail that incorporates art with nature.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera for this trip. However, the following pics are courtesy of Cousin Mike who had his nice new camera with him! Um, Cousin Mike, is it OK if I use your pics pretty please?

Some pics of the art exhibits:

Here we are with Cousin Mike (far left) enjoying the art exhibit. Looks like I've got the chair that's just right.

If you visit this farm and take this fabulous walk, may I suggest a visit to their Pie Garden for "The Works:" homemade apple pie from their apple orchard with vanilla ice cream and carmel sauce. It's the perfect sweet treat for fabulous place!

Some serious R & R

Are the boxes unpacked?
No.
Is that drawer in the kitchen still scary to open?
Oh yeah.
Am I still missing a box of shoes?
Pretty much.


But for now, that doesn’t really matter (well, the shoes yes, but I’m pulling a Scarlett O’Hara on that one and will deal with it later), we’re off on an impromptu trip to one of my happy places! We’re heading to my family’s place in Cascade for some much needed R & R for a long weekend. No relaxing could be done at the house until the last box was unpacked, so we’re avoiding it all by leaving town for a few days. I’ll be recharging my batteries on the deck, soaking up some sun, catching up on my reading, enjoying the company of my family and just watching life go by.


(Editor’s note: If you’re one of my many Idaho friends who I haven’t had a chance to call and tell you I’ll be in town, sorry about that. But you know where you can find me. And you know there’s always an extra seat on our porch and a cold beverage waiting for you if you stop by!)

A weekend recharged

Place: Lincoln City, Oregon.

Objective: Hang out with the family. Walk along the beach. Explore the wildlife. Reconnect with the world.

Mission Accomplished.

FO: My Socks

While I was in France, I was able to finish my socks!

Pattern: Simple Socks from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles

Yarn: Nodding Violet from Socks That Rock

Once again, I seemed to have a bit of a yarn pooling issue. Now that this is the second time I've made these socks with the same pooling issue. Which means it's the knitter. I've started a pair of socks the hubby and I'm seeing the same pooling. It's time to get smaller needles, rip out his sock and start over.

But at least his socks had a bit of an adventure. Here they are soaking up some sun in Nice, France. Nice, huh. (Editor's note: while the socks may look like they are striping, the other side is really pooling.)

France: It's all about the food

I have no shame and I'm fine admitting it. I basically ate my way through France and loved every minute of it! In fact, I've been craving some serious carbs since I got back! Apparently my diet is craving uber amounts of bread! Here are some of the delectable dishes we consumed - or salivated over:

Creme Brule was the dessert of choice for us. We "tested" it out all over the place and I can officially say the best is at La 16 in Arles, our favorite restaurant of the trip. I'm determined to learn how to make this dish!

These Sables were from the bakery down the street from our apartment. The picture above that is another dessert we ate with friends on night in Paris. Below, chocolate Eiffel Towers for sale in Montmart.We hit the Sunday morning farmers market at the Bastille and it's amazing to see the people who shop there every week! Below are some seasonings for sale.

More carbs please!

Cheese please! I was salivating over a huge hunks of cheese at the market! I had to have a cheese plate at La 16 in Alres! I love how the French eat their cheese plates for desserts, however I prefer to eat mine as an appetizer and have some chocolate or creme brule for dessert! But that's just me.
Above are some of the biggest beef steak tomatoes at the farmers market in Alres! I was amazed by how large the fruit and produce were at these small town markets! And what would a trip to France be without a crepe? So we had a nutella crepe in Aux-en-Provence. We had to slow down long enough for me to snap the picture. It was really good!
It's time to hit the gym...but worth every minute on the treadmill!