Family – Page 3 – Thimbleanna

A Baby Shower

25 Comments / May 5, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Family

Hi there! Boy, my blogging sure has slowed down in the last few months. There’s always Just. So. Much. To. Do! I can’t keep up! And who stole April??? It zipped by in a haze and I can’t believe it’s May already. Another busy month with quilt market coming up! (Yipee!)

Anyway, MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a beautiful little baby shower for SweetiePie a week and a half ago. We were a small group but we had a good time and the shower lasted almost 2 hours longer than I thought it would!

MyDadLovesMeBestSister always does such a beautiful job decorating. And, of course, the theme of the day was PINK!!! Here’s a partial shot of the gift table – notice the little peek (in the bottom right-hand corner) of the adorable garland of baby socks that are hanging on the front of the table. Too Cute! And pretty pom poms lining the fireplace.

We ate first and the food was delicious. Hot chicken salad, a pear walnut salad, croissants, lots of fruit, cheese spread and crackers, chocolate dipped strawberries, and a beautiful little cake. After lunch, we dismantled the pretty table setting so that we could make baby headbands (and eat pink candy!). It was really fun to sit around and work with our hands while we were visiting. It was a fun surprise for SweetiePie and I think she liked it!

These are just a few of the finished headbands – I didn’t remember to take a picture until most of them were all packed up.

After we made headbands, we tied a few baby quilts, but we’re already picture heavy, so I’ll save that for another post. In the meantime, the chalkboard from the shower is now out of date – only 39 more days until the due date – Eeeep!

XOXO,
Anna

Absence

55 Comments / February 25, 2016 March 8, 2016 / Family

Boy, Oh Boy. That was a bit of a gap in posting, wasn’t it? I certainly didn’t mean to be gone for so long. Thank you so much for all the e-mails of concern and worry — you guys are all so sweet. Many of you suspected that something must be wrong here in Thimbleannaland, and sadly, you were right.

We’ve lost our BigDaddy.

Long time readers know how we all adore our BigDaddy and we’re heartbroken. (I’ve posted about him a lot before, but the best are here and here.) In the aftermath of his little fender bender, he came home from re-hab with a cold and it slowly morphed into pneumonia. He’s been so amazing at fighting off big health issues over the years, that it just seems impossible that a nasty little cold would ultimately claim him.

We managed to get all the grandkids home on very short notice and we were all with him, holding hands when the time came. He surely must’ve known how very much we all love him. After we left the hospital, we went to dinner together and shared some memories. It was so heartwarming to hear the stories, both sweet and funny, from the grandchildren. I think we all parted company that night, thinking that we must be the luckiest family ever to have had such a wonderful father and grandfather.

BigDaddy had a great life. He’s been such a rascal (doing things he shouldn’t) these last few years, that it often made me think that he must’ve been a handful for his mother. He’s the little guy on the right in the above picture — isn’t he cute? Can you see that mischievous twinkle in his eye? I think he carried that with him through his whole life. I think his favorite thing must have been to make people laugh — he had an amazing sense of humor. Oh how he made us laugh — always with a corny joke, funny story, or prank. (He thought the sign in the picture below was hysterical — did you know that they have disabled toilets at Stonehenge???)

BigDaddy taught us many things, but, I think the biggest was the value of kindness. He was kind to everyone and it showed — for as long as I can remember, people have always told me “Your Dad is such a great guy”. And he was single-minded in his devotion to MeMum. She’s been a bit of a rascal herself these last few years, but BigDaddy told us many times “I promised her Dad that I’d take care of her”. They set such a wonderful example for us kids — as impossible as it sounds, I don’t remember them ever arguing when I was growing up. They always had so much fun together and MeMum is lost without him. Here’s one of my favorite pictures of them, taken last spring on their 60th anniversary. This is sooooo them — always having fun together.

A day or two before BigDaddy died, the pulmonologist was showing TheManoftheHouse an x-ray and basically telling him there was no hope.

“And look how enlarged his heart is” the Dr. Said.

No Surprises There.

We always knew BigDaddy had a huge heart.

One that we will miss and love forever.

XOXO,
Anna

A Little Trip

28 Comments / August 25, 2015 August 25, 2015 / Family, Travel

Well Hey There! I’m finally back from our little getaway trip out west. We were gone for two weeks (didyamissmelol?) and had a wonderful time. TheFirstChild, SweetiePie and I drove out, then TheSecondChild joined us for the second week and TheFirstChild flew home early — I think one cross-country drive was enough for him!

Our trip started off with a big bang and a quickie visit with my beloveed Ms. Farmhouse. She very graciously provided beds for us in her gorgeous home. Our visit was way too short, but it was so fun to see her — we normally only get to catch up at quilt markets. One of the best things for me was to see her beautiful nest. Boy, oh boy, what a sewing room — this is only part of it!

And the best part is, the kids thought I was over the top with my little quilting hobby. Thank you Ms. Farmhouse for making me look normal — the kids commented that I’ve found my twin. (If only my dungeon could come close to being a twin to the nest!)

The second day of the trip, we made it almost to Calgary and then our final destination, Banff, on the morning of the third day. Wow, oh Wow! Banff National Park is just beautiful. I don’t even have the words to describe how lush and green and pretty it is. We spent our three days there hiking and seeing some unbelievably gorgeous lakes. The aqua blue colors in the lake water were amazing. Beautiful (and famous) Lake Louise:

Peyto Lake:

And, my favorite, Moraine Lake. If you’re on Instagram, you see lots of people taking pictures like this one — sitting on a rock, overlooking the lake.

And here’s a tip about that rock-shot: When you first arrive at the end of the lake, you see this huge pile of rocks. SweetiePie somehow knew that the rock-shot happens from the top of this pile. Therefore, we needed to climb to the top of the pile.

First, you have to cross this log-dam. If you slip off of a log, your feet end up in the lake. Climbing up the pile was interesting — and fun!

So, where’s the tip? When we got to the top, there was a guy up there with a dog. I asked him how on earth he got the dog up that rock pile. He laughed at me and said there’s a nice, easy path that goes up around the back of the rock pile. Doh! Oh well, I’m probably glad we didn’t know about the path, or we would have missed the fun of almost falling off of the rock pile!

Emerald Lake:

There’s a beautiful hike around Emerald Lake through the woods. Very, very fun!

After three days in Canada, we made our way down to Glacier National Park in Montana. It’s about a four-hour drive and it was surprising how different the mountains are — less dense forests, but just as beautiful. The more open areas had a big advantage — we saw no wildlife in Canada, but saw animals every day in Glacier. The famous Glacier tour buses — they haven’t changed since the 1930’s.

We spent all of our time in Glacier hiking and enjoying the views. One of my favorite hikes was the Highline Trail. There’s about a quarter-mile at the beginning of the hike where you hike along a cliff. The park service very kindly provides a cable to hold on to — so you don’t plunge to the road 100-feet below. ;-D

The view from the cliff was totally worth it.

We did several other hikes in Glacier and I loved them all (if you go, don’t miss the Grinnell Glacier hike!). (As a side note — have you seen the funny video of the lady who tells you how to avoid a shark attack? (Go watch it — it’s too funny!) You hear a lot about watching out for bears in Glacier (for good reason!) and the shark-lady says not to go into the bear’s house in her video. When we hiked through meadows like the one below, we were sure we were in the bear’s house — tons of berry plants everywhere!)

We also found some time for a little other fun — skipping rocks at the lakes,

Zip-lining,

And a visit to Polebridge, which the boys are convinced is inhabited by anarchists!

After just 4 days at Glacier, we took 3 days to drive home — it took an extra day because we stopped to see these guys:

Anyway, it was a great trip — highly recommended if you haven’t been to either of those parks. Especially, if you love to hike like we do!!!

Lots of fun stuff going on here (oooh, new fabric!), but it will have to wait. I’m off again in a day, on another little adventure. And then, maybe we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming and some blog-reading!

XOXO,
Anna

Dogs and Balloons

33 Comments / November 4, 2014 November 4, 2014 / Family

Ohmygosh you guys. I’m sure this isn’t news to anyone, but it’s November. Already. I’ve been cruising along thinking that I won’t be making much for Christmas this year, and then last night I remembered a gift that I really want to make. I had a mild panic attack when I realized that there are only 50 days to make a project that’s going to take some calculating and work. Ouch!

Anyway, while I slowly breathe in and breathe out to calm myself … I had some questions about the picture I posted of Winston the other day, so I thought I’d try and answer them. Our little picture taking adventure all started when MyDadLovesMeBestSister asked me if I’d take some senior pictures of CuteNiece2. We’d all been thinking about what we wanted to do, and at the last minute, I suggested that we grab the dog and some goggles that I gave CrazyBIL last year for Christmas and see what happened. We ended up with this fun picture of a girl, her car and her dog.

I love that picture! (Oh, and hey — while we’re on her pictures — CuteNiece2 went to all the work to become a certified Yoga instructor last year. Hey all you yogis out there –can you do this pose??? My arms hurt just looking at it!)

Anyway, back to the dog pictures. The next week Winston came to visit and we thought we’d try to get some more fun goggle pictures. (For those of you having trouble keeping up (ha!), Teddy is 4 years old and belongs to MyDadLovesMeBestSister and Winston is 1 year old and belongs to TheFirstChild and SweetiePie. They’re both F1 Goldendoodles.) So, we put the dogs where all dogs love to be, near a fire hydrant. With balloons and goggles. (Teddy on the left, Winston on the right.)

Winston did NOT want to wear those goggles. Like the senior photo, we tried the dogs in the car. First with both dogs in the front seat. That definitely wasn’t working. However, we did get proof that Winston would wear the googles over his eyes for a minute or two. Teddy on the left, Winston on the right.

This was my favorite dog photo that afternoon. Both dogs happy. Teddy driving his good buddy around for the day. (And by the way, it wasn’t totally ridiculous to get balloons for the dogs — they were both celebrating their birthdays that week!)

Hopefully, dogs in goggles with balloons brightened your day a little.
Btw, how are you Auntlets (that’s what I’m going to call you if you’re participating in the Aunts’ Quiltalong!) coming with your quilts? Have you made a good start? I’m almost done with my assignment this month. Plus, I made a list of those of you participating over there in my sidebar. I KNOW I’ve left some of you out. I know for sure that I’ve forgotten one of you — I can see your e-mail but I can’t find it and I can’t remember your name. I’m SO sorry. PLEASE e-mail me and remind me and I’ll add you to the list.

XOXO,
Anna

Honors

47 Comments / March 5, 2014 April 12, 2014 / Family

Well, that was an unplanned absence. We’ve been away for almost a week — or what should have been 4 or 5 days but turned into a week because of bad weather and flight cancellations that resulted in a 16 hour drive home. But, my little rant about the airlines is the subject of another post.

Sadly, TheManoftheHouse’s father passed away a little over a week ago. He was a career Army officer with a long and distinguished career, so it was only fitting that he have a service with full military honors.

We were very lucky for the end of February, and the weather was beautiful on the day of the funeral. It was so nice to see all the friends and family gathered together. Why is it that we only get together for weddings and funerals? The passing of time and of a loved one is such a sad occasion, but there’s also a sense of relief that he’s not suffering anymore. He was a hard worker and always made me laugh with his funny little jokes. And as hard as his illness was, my MIL said he had a little smile up until the end.

RIP dear FIL.

XOXO,
Anna