Fiber anyone?

Saturday we went to the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. You may wonder what exactly that means (like Caleb's mom who thought of things like All-Bran and prunes). But it is actually all about "fiber" which is wool from many different sources including sheep, alpacas, rabbits, camels, goats, etc. We saw sheep shearing, wool in different stages of processing, tons of yarn of all different types, and different items made with the wool.  There was supposed to be a sheep dog hearding competition but we were disappointed not to have seen it.


Camberly picked out several different colors of roving to try her hand at a new project involving both wet and needle felting. She also wishes she could knit better so she could try making some of the amazing things that we saw there.

Ta Da Kitchen

Months after its completion, here is a picture of the finished kitchen. This is the 3rd time our kitchen has had some sort of a makeover since we moved in. This time it got a new tile floor, a fresh coat of paint, and some new Roman shades. Many thanks to both sets of parents for all the time they have spent with us over the years working on this room. It feels so bright and new. It has been a lot of work getting to this point.

1st remodel-removed wallpaper, painted cabinents, painted walls two tone green, new light fixture and drawer pulls, Roman shades

2nd remodel- took out faux brick backsplash, replace countertop, new sink and new faucet, installed dishwasher, repainted the two tone green

In between- new refridgerator, new oven, new ceiling

3rd (and final) remodel- removed linoleum, put in tile, repainted cabinents, repainted walls two tone light browns, new Roman Shades

An Education in the Night Sky

At the end of July we had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Mees Observatory for the University of Rochester. Throughout the summer they do tours. It started with about an hour and a half of astronomy education at the Gannett house. Then the plan was to go up to the observatory and see what we might see.


After weeks of very dry hot weather, that day was on and off clouds. So we were worried the clouds would interfere. Fortunately it cleared up temporarily to allow us to see an amazing view of the Milky Way and many constellations with the naked eye, as well as a double star and Vega through the 24 inch telescope. It was really amazing how many more stars you can see when you are not in the city. Definately a fun learning experience.

A Little Bit of Everything

A couple weeks ago Caleb's parents came to visit. We had a lot of fun while they were here and did a little bit of something from about every category you can think of. We went to the Palmyra Pageant on Thursday evening, the dress rehearsal. It was great. Just like the "real" nights but with a lot less people and no hecklers.

Friday we did tasks around the house. Dale helped Caleb finally finish the base board and transition for the floor in the kitchen. Judy helped Camberly make new Roman shades for the kitchen. That night Dale and Caleb went to a Rochester Redwings game (Triple-A baseball). They said the entertainment between the games was great--Barak Ollama, Harry Canary, Bear Bonds, an octopus thing, etc. After deciding to leave before the fireworks, they got side swiped on the drive home. What a fun end to the night. Camberly and Judy went to JoAnns and got started on a project.
   

Saturday we headed down to Watkins Glenn State Park to see all the waterfalls. We took tons of pictures and got a little wet going under a few of the falls.

Then on the way home we stopped in Cananidagua to go to a Rochester Philharmonic outdoor concert at CMAC. It was a bunch of movie music from James Bond, Rocky, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. It was a kid friendly concert and so they had characters from Star Wars there walking around and tons of kids had light sabers.

Sunday was for going to church, relaxing, and finishing the sewing project.

Monday we headed to the High Falls in Rochester and then Dinosaur BBQ before Dale and Judy had to head back home.

It was a fun and busy visit experiencing a lot that the area has to offer.

Reunion 2011

Over the 4th we took a quick trip out to the Jeppsen family reunion in Salt Lake.  It was a busy few days but we had a great time seeing everyone and hanging out. Fortunately everyone made it through without injury in the kiddie pool kickball, the relay races, and water balloon volleyball. Nights were rowdy with Wii dancing and raucous Uno games.

Curling was a challenge but lots of fun (I don't think we have any future Olympians in that sport).

 Some of us might be successful if we ever got on to Minute to Win It. And of course there was plenty of time to hang out, talk, swim, and hold any number of babies. 

Caleb ended up with an interesting sunburn and Camberly can't actually have a vacation without a sewing project. We had a lot of fun and look forward to the next one in a couple years.

Marshwiggles

In past years springtime makes our backyard very wet from the melting snow and rain. Usually for about a month it is too wet to let the dogs out to play. This year has been the worst by far. Saturday when I tried to mow, I wore galoshes. I only got about 3 feet from the house before the water and mud was too much. The part I did looks terrible. By this time we expected it to still be wet but not standing water.

We decided to let the dogs out to have fun in the mud. You couldn't really see how muddy Sadie was but it showed up really well on Sylvester. He definitely had fun. It took a really long time to get them clean (grass clippings and mud).

Caleb went and got a pump and hose to pump the water out to the street. It worked pretty well and now hopefully things will dry out. Caleb took the video below to better show just how wet it was back there.

Kirtland

A couple weeks ago we were both lucky to have a Friday off and so we decided to take a day trip down to Kirtland, OH. We had never been there before despite it only being about 3.5 hours away. On the advice of a friend we went to the old temple first, maintained by the Community of Christ. The building was pretty neat although the tour was kind of lackluster. It was raining so we didn't get many pictures outside. Next we headed to the LDS site just down the hill. It kind of reminded me of Nauvoo because there are several fixed up or replica buildings that are part of the tour--Whitney Store, Ashery, Mill, Whitney home, etc. On this tour we walked around outside from building to building, so fortunately it had stopped raining just as we arrived. As always the sister missionaries were very enthusiastic tour guides and we learned a lot of interesting new things.