First Quilts...

For months now (probably a year from my Grandma's perspective) my Grandma Hopper has been planning a Quilting weekend with the youngest girl grand kids (she has had a few years of quilting weekends with the older girl grand kids). So the first weekend I was away helping my other Grandma in the hospital, the girls went off for a quilting weekend. I know very little about quilting, but I have made a small pre-cut kit quilt with Sadie once and therefore I have a small appreciation for the hard work involved in putting together a quilt. I have a HUGE appreciation for the work Grandma put into this weekend and making it not only a learning experience for the kids, but also a fun time!

Grandma had 3 stations set up, one station per kiddo (Sadie, Kate & Syrah).

Sadie at her station working on her first block

Grandma observing Syrah's sewing skills.

Sadie cutting

As they finished a block they hung it on the wall to see their progress and to lay out the plan as to where they would all go. This were Sadie's completed blocks.

Syrah's completed blocks.

Kate & Sadie

The completed blocks growing (Syrah's blocks)

Sadie's all stitched together!

Sadie & Syrah ready for bed after a long day of sewing!

Good Morning - back to work!

Sadie pinning her quilt with the help of Grandma and Aunt Cindy.

A look at Sadie's machine.

The quilts are 95% done, but the way the quilting weekends go, you are done when you are done, so they pack them up and wait until next year to finish (YES... they wait an entire year!!).

Grandma waiving goodbye and Grandpa seeing the girls off!

I was so grateful to Sadie for capturing so many pictures so I could see what they did over the weekend and for the help of their cousin Nicole who helped capture pictures and as a vetran quilter helped them with their quilts.

A BIG THANK YOU to Grandma Hopper for having the girls over to make their first quilts!!

Museum of Glass

The first week in July (before my Grandma's surgery) I took the girls to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I have always wanted to go down there and decided there was no better time then the present.

The Glass sculptures begin before you even enter the building. Here Syrah and I are standing outside what is called the Fluent Steps. At night it lights up which would be amazing to see.

You can't take pictures of the art inside, but you can take pictures of the hot shop; the hot shop is where glass art is being made live and each week they have a new featured artist. I could have sat in here for hours!! It was amazing to see that one piece takes an entire team and how one minor mistake can set an artist back hours. In this picture you can see a man on the far right holding a microphone. He takes questions from the audience and also you can watch the hot shop live and post a question which he will answer (technology is awesome!). The man behind him you can see is holding up a pole. There is women on the other side of the room (not in picture) holding a pole also and they are stretching a piece of hot glass to make a colored glass rod. These rods are used to make color within glass pieces. The entire process is quite amazing!!

The museum has an great area for kids. They have a craft each day (maybe it's by week) and also a contest where a child creates a photo and the hot shop team will select one a month and turn it into a piece of art. The museum puts the child's art and the glass piece on display, but they also make a second piece for the child to take home. If you want to read more about the contest and see some of the past winners and their work click here.

On our way out there was this water/glass display called Water Forest; the ripples in the clear is actually water flowing on the outside of the piece.

Around the corner there is an amazing stairway appropriately named the Grand Staircase that leads up to Chihuly's Bridge of Glass; you can see a gallery of the bridge which is in itself worth the trip to the Museum.

When you arrive at the top of the stairs you enter the bridge and this is what you find. The massive size is not even close to being represented in these photos! This section of the bridge was yards and yards and yards of glass embedded in this wall that was over the I-5 freeway.

To give a small indication of the size of these pieces of Chihuly's work; you can compare them to the size of this picture of Sadie and myself.

One of our favorite pieces is the one behind the girls in this photo. I am taken back by the stem of this flower. It is even more striking to see all this after spending time in the hot shop as you really learn to appreciate every tiny detail.

Just another one of my favorites; I have TONS of pictures of the ones I loved... there really isn't one I didn't love!

On our way out you find this display, Mirrored Murrelets, all glass birds (over 250) of them. I encourage you to take off and go to the Tacoma Museum of Glass and see all that they offer, we know we will go back!!

Prayers for Grandma UPDATED 7-31

Updates:

When I wrote this below my grandma had come out of surgery just a few days prior and was having some pain and "typical" complications from surgery. I had no idea what was to come. She ended up in ICU, ended up with a aspirated pneumonia, ended up with a feeding tube and with a much longer hospital stay then anticipated all before ending up at home with the requirement of 24/7 care. The good news is she is home, she is healing, she is improving every day and yesterday the feeding tube was removed along with her being able to take off the oxygen. She has a battle ahead, but I am grateful for the steps she has taken forward as the doctor made it clear on the day we left the hospital that we could have lost her. If you are interested you can read more about her progress at:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/connieline

Thank you for all your prayers and support. For weeks we were passing the kids around, scrabbling to figure out day to day (even hour to hour at times) and have literally had a hard time thinking past the hospital, past Grandma. I appreciate all those who helped us get through the last few weeks; we could not have done it all without you.

On a side note... the girls and I had an outing to the Glass Museum the day before Grandma's surgery and last Saturday our family was able to spend the day together... we went out to the Olympic Game Farm which was super fun. I will try to update with some of those fun pictures soon!!!

Mother's Day 2008 Grandma Connie, Me, Mom (Valerie)

As I currently type all these overdue posts, I come with one post most important. I am asking that you lift up my Grandma Connie in prayer. Wednesday she has a major surgery that confirmed she has ovarian cancer. She has had a very long, painful, frustrating few days here in the hospital and recovery is not an easy road. Next week she will be given the schedule for her needed chemotherapy.

My Grandmother is a very monumental person in my life, I love her dearly and deeply and I hate to watch her suffer as she is right now. I ask that you lift her current hospital stay up in prayer... pray for a speedy and full recovery with limited side effects. I ask that you pray for God's healing hand to be upon her and to allow the chemotherapy to destroy any and all cancer that may be left behind after surgery. I ask for strength both physically and emotionally for my Grandmother and for my mother.

Thank you!

4th of July fun with friends

I can hardly believe the fun we had on the fourth. Our dear friends the Caceres Family invited some friends and family to enjoy the sunshine day with water-slides, BBQ, chocolate fountain (yum), fireworks and fellowship. It was a blast! I had to get really selective on what pictures to share because we had so many and it was so much fun (did I mention that part all ready?).

They set up two big water slides and a pool for the kids to wade and splash in!

Of course the chocolate fountain; always a hit!

Back to the slides...

Samuel; looks chilled, but really it is the face of anticipation for the joy to come!

Tayrn and Syrah getting ready to take another round down the slides (do you see the fun yet???)

Morgan watching Samuel attempt a head first slide.

Just love this shot of Micah!!

Dayton and Abby splashin' in the pool (now do you see the fun?)

Dayton getting cozied by his Auntie Katrina


True Friends are PRICELESS!

Katrina and her brother Jerome got a little wet in the friendly balloon toss (which ended up with toss your sister in the kiddy pool, which ended up... if I'm going in little brother, so are you!) (fun...do you see it now??)

Sadie holding precious Amara

Time for tank wars!

Smore's anyone?? Thanks Smith family for the yummy treat! (I bet you can see it now!!!)

The mama's and the kids all curled up watching the fireworks show!

Love this picture of Dayton, he looks a tad puzzled, maybe intrigued, but certainly he is having FUN!

Master Fireworks Guru Michael!


Clean up time (even here there are smiles)

Look at all those fireworks.

Thank you to the Caceres family for the wonderful day/night/morning! Thank you to all who came and brought fireworks and yummy food. We had a great time with all of you!

Just putt putting around

Last weekend we had the privilege of spending Friday with my dad and Kelly. Dad took our family to a really nice Putt Putt golf range at Willows Run . The girls are always telling him how they would like to go golfing with him and he came through with flying colors!

Syrah found a golf bag just her size!

Grandpa giving the girls some direction on filling out the putt putt log!

Group shot at the start of the Rainbow Run (the golf course is all Washington themed and was really well put together!)

Sadie lining up her putt. She looks like a pro!

Wish I could remember the name of this hole,but loved the cave with the waterfall inside and multiple rocks that you had to get around to get to the hole!

Syrah "just a little tap".

After golfing we had some lunch and went and watched the movie UP. This was the second time we saw it in the theater and it was well worth it. I have to say I think it is one of the best movies we have seen in a long time and I so appreciate that "adult entertainment" didn't include any rude comments, underlying bad jokes and overall harsh humor, but in contrast offered a story line both kids and adults can relate to. Pixar did a great job on that movie and I highly recommend it!

Thanks Dad and Kelly for a great day!!

KAT-FISH Camp

Girls at KAT FISH CAMP 2009 (warm beach)

A few weekends ago our family went to KAT FISH (Kids and Teens' Families Investing Support and Hope) Camp. This was the forth year we have gone (we missed last year) and this year Bill and I decided to be in the back-ground and work with the kids. The girls had a great time at camp and we had a great time working with 22 1st and 2nd grade kids. This camp is a true blessing for people to connect with each other and hear about the different aspects of what their children are dealing with and also to learn how to cope with having a child with a chronic illness. I know the first year that we went to camp in 2005 it was a ton of information, but liberating to hear others. Sadie has always enjoyed going as they make it really fun for the kids yet no one has to explain why they may not be able to do something or why something may take them a bit longer. This year they got to try climbing the rock wall and Sadie and Bill went on a horseback riding trip! We had fun working with the kids and hope that we will get to participate again with them.