what a summer . . .

Wow.  Time really does fly when you're having fun, huh? Last I posted, I was headed to Hawaii!  I had a lovely two weeks seeing all the sights and experiencing the culture.  Really way too much to share; I'm not sure I've even processed all I saw and did—LOL...I don't think I've had time!

There were a couple of stitching-related things I did want to talk about.  One of our stops was the Polynesian Cultural Center.  They had a whole hut dedicated to the beautiful style of hand applique that is linked to the islands . . .

The woman working was such a delight to talk to and gave us tips as to what quilt shops we should look for! One of those was this little delight, which was tucked away on a hop on/off bus tour we did . . .

SOOO glad they shipped to the main land . . . my suitcases couldn't have handled my haul from Kapaia!

I loved catching the sunrises and sunsets from the balcony off our ship, and this one was as lovely as any:

Believe it or not, a sunrise!  One last photo from Hawaii and I'll move on <grin>.  One of my very favorite excursions was a helicopter tour over Hilo.  It was just exquisite! 

It didn't hurt that our pilot was such a darling!  The views were breath-taking!

I was home from Hawaii exactly one day, and my sweet California crew flew to Alabama for a surprise visit!  Well, I was expecting Sawyer, who was coming to stay with me for three weeks, but the whole family decided they wanted a week, too!  

We had a wonderful time together and spent the July 4th holiday on the boat, on the lake.  It was a beautiful, bittersweet day for me.  

At the end of the month, I returned with Sawyer to California and spent a week there.  We had a great time visiting the beach, shopping in downtown Old Temecula, going to Disney's California Adventure Park, and checking out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park!

We had some quiet days too, and it really was a sweet visit.  But between, Yellowstone, Hawaii, and the month of July, let's just say my watch was like ... what's up with this elevated step count???  Haha!

That brings me to August.  Yeah.  One of the first fun things I did was a trip to Nashville with my affirmation sisters to see the quilt exhibit at the Frist Art Museum . . .

It was a really special showing of quilts on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  I was most tickled to see so many Gee's Bend quilts in the exhibit!  Anyway, the exhibit is there until October, so if you're in the area, it's definitely worth a stop!

Next up. A little utilitarian stitching. Evey started pointe this year, and needed some help getting her shoes ready!  

I always consider this kind of sewing a privilege.  ♥

Believe it or not, I agreed to be our guild's 2nd VP in charge of programs this year.  What was I thinking?!  LOL!  I'm actually excited . . . I needed something to get me out and back in the thick of things.  Our guild's show is in February, and at our August meeting we unveiled our Opportunity  Quilt (raffle quilt):

Isn't it pretty?!  I've got three tops ready to be quilted by the gal who made/quilted it.  She's so talented!

And guess what . . . Ezra started soccer!

He's so darling—it's hard to believe he'll be four this month!  He's a little go getter on the field; and he was VERY disappointed this morning when they got the call that this morning's game was cancelled because of storms (and it wasn't even raining yet!).  Everley, on the other, was NOT sad.  She was ready to learn embroidery, so she'd spent the night with me and I pulled out the heart sampler I had used to teach Ellie how to embroider. She's just as much a natural as Ellie is!

We had fun stitching and chatting.  She worked on the heart and I worked on a new cross stitch project, Lady Halloween by Jardin Privé.  It's really darling.  I'm stitching it on an ivory 20-count aida.  

Anyway, Evey wanted to finish up a couple of lines of embroidery, and was glad for the cancelled game and the extra time to stitch!  A girl after my own heart!

And speaking of Ellie, she's still very much into handwork!  She just finished this cute little pillow for the season . . . 

And she's working on a cute pineapple cross stitch project right now.  She, Evey and I will all be slow stitching tomorrow! (Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching post!)

In feline news, the girls are glad the summer is over and I was home for thirty days in a row!

They are spoiled rotten and I love them to pieces!  They are so purrsonable!!

And finally, what would a post from me be without a sunset pic?

Aloha! Have a great week ahead!

:)

yellowstone in thirty-eight . . .

So.  I'm back!  What a trip we had!  I took 1,557 photos over the course of our travels.  Shall I post them all? Hahaha! Just kidding! I'm going to share my favorite five hundred photos, in no particular order (and feel free to scroll to the bottom for my slow stitching report) . . .

We spotted this juvenile moose resting on a patch of snow, on our way up to Inspiration Point, at Jenny Lake.  It was our only moose sighting!

Queue mandantory Yellowstone National Park sign group photo!

My beautiful Jocelyn!

We caught this herd of bison on our first day.  Look at all the babies!

Old Faithful!

Other geyers on the Upper Geyser Basin.

Grand Prismatic Springs

Another at Grand Prismatic Springs.  I could have shared 38 photos just from this sight.

Our sweet cabin in West Yellowstone.  Or, as Ezra called it, our "Yellowstone Home".

Waterfalls!!

Falls coming down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Edith and I sharing a Huckleberry Float!

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was breathtaking!

This one and the one below are from Norris Geyser Basin.  The colors and patterns were surreal.  This was another spot I could've shared a ton of photos.

We saw bears of all types a number of times, but this was our best (and closest) encounter.  This grizzly was less than 15 yards away, above us on the road as we drove home the second night. 

Elk were most common in the valley along the road on the way out of the West gate.

There are several markers for the Continental Divide up/down this road, but this one is the highest elevation, and sits at the lake (pictured below) that flows both east (into the Atlantic) and west (into the Pacific).  Wonders, y'all!  I saw WONDERS!

Left Thumb of Yellowstone Lake

Geysers at the West Thumb.

Yellowstone Lake is H U G E!

Mud Volcano area was very, very sulphurous!

Probably 20% of my photos have these sweet faces included!!  They did ballet poses and funny faces and were so good to have three adults taking their pictures every other minute!  :)

Petrified Tree—just fascinating!

Mammoth Hot Springs. I wish these photos did it justice!

More of my fellow hikers!

Grand Tetons over Jenny Lake.

The falls were really rushing, due to all the snow melt.

Tower Falls was spectacular.

We had a late lunch/early supper at Dornan's Pizza Pasta Company.  This was our view!

The Snake River, pretty much from the spot where Ansel Adams based his famous portrait.

On our last night, we went back to Old Faithful (for a third or fourth time) and caught the most beautiful sunset!  And you know what a sucker I am for a glorious sunset photo!

All the kids did such a great job earning their Junior Ranger badges for both Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons, as well as their Young Scientist patch for Yellowstone!

I really only shared 38 pictures (only 2.4% of my total photos), which really isn't enough to capture the scope and breadth of all we saw.  Photos just don't do justice anyway.  The awe of it is such that words don't even do it justice.  I can understand all the famous painters and photographers, poets, and wordsmiths who have tried to capture it; have tried.  But there is something about standing in the middle of the grandness of it all that just puts words and photos to shame.  If you haven't been, I'd highly recommend adding the trip to your bucket list!

Every one of the Merkels had a down day (sprinkled throughout our week), due to a stomach bug.  I never caught it. I don't know why, but I sure am grateful!  Kids and younger adults bounce back from those things than senior citizens! I did manage to do every climb, hike, and walk that the group did, save one.  At Mammoth Hot Springs, I got to the level above the springs; Joc, Evey, and Ellie went to the tip-top, but Jason, Edith, Ezra and I stayed and did a lateral hike around the rock.  Joc said the view wasn't any better from the additional height, so I felt justified.  <grin>  Anyway, I averaged 13,500 steps a day, and sixish daily miles. Not bad, right?

I did very little stitching.  There really wasn't time . . . even though we spent at least 90 minutes or more a day in the vehicle.  When there's miles and miles of Yellowstone landscape to look at (not to mention scouring that landscape for moose, elk, bears, and whatnot), you just can't focus on handwork!  I took a couple dozen stitches on my Spring Quaker mini . . .

And, since I'd finished the patriotic wool felt project I'd prepped, I went looking for something to replace it.  I came across a Kathy Schmitz project I'd gotten for Christmas 2023, but it got lost in the shuffle of Todd's illness and death, and then my grief and move.  But I found it and it's so cute!

I worked January's and February's designs, and got started on April's little stitchery.  So the trip wasn't super productive, but it wasn't totally bereft of progress!

I still haven't responded to all of the comments from the last post, so I'm off to do that now.  After I go for a swim in the pool!  Have a fabulous first week of June . . . summer is here!

:)