An Autumn Homecoming

Wow, its been quite a while since my last posting.  As you know I have been traveling the Northwest and visiting family and friends in Idaho, Utah and Nevada.  What a fun and needed vacation I had.  I've been back for a full week now but haven't had a chance to blog because I have been busy deep cleaning and organizing the house this past week on top of working a full week's worth.  But I found some extra time this morning that I could blog a little so I thought I would share with you a few photos from my travels.

The first day I drove 61/2 hours from Portland and ended the day in Emmett, Idaho and stayed the night with one of my close friends from high school.  While my friend, Tessa and I were busy catching up and playing with her little girl, Charlotte was busy making friends with the two cow dogs and the horses in the field.  Charlotte kept sticking her head through the fence to go say hi to the horses.  I kept a close eye on her because I was afraid she would squeeze through the fence.

 Charlotte, Me, Tessa and Alyanna sitting on a bench in Tessa's backyard

 Aly on her swing set

 Charlotte and Storm

After staying with Tessa the night I drove 2 hours more through Idaho and stopped in Hagerman to visit my grandparents.  Idaho has never been a favorite state of mine but the little town of Hagerman is beautiful.  It sits right along the Snake River and is full of natural greenery and small ponds and creeks. My grandparents house was built entirely by my grandpa and my uncle about 15 years ago.  My grandpa did such a good job designing a house that fits his property beautifully.  It complements its surroundings and doesn't feel out of  place.  I saw a lot of multi-million dollar homes along the Snake River but my grandparent's house is by far my favorite.  There is even a large pond in back stocked with carp, koi, sturgeon and other types of fish that my grandpa filled himself.  

This is the back side of the house my grandpa built.  The grass is a perfect spot for my grandma to practice her golf swing.

This is part of the pond.  To build it my grandpa redirected the water from the creek that naturally fills the pond.  He also added a fountain in the middle of the pond to aereate the water every once and a while.

Here is me with my grandparents boating along the Snake River.  We took the dogs with us.  Charlotte loved it.  I was afraid she would jump off the side of the boat because she wanted to investigate everything on it.

While I was there my grandpa made a ton of cute projects for me.  Which I will blog about in the future when I have time to finish them. Above is a photo of a dog dining station my grandpa helped me attach legs and cut out holes for the dishes.  Its made out of a skate board.  I am still working on painting it and customizing it for Charlotte but when I'm done I will blog about it.  I might even decide to try and sell them because it turned out really cute.


The next stop was my grandma Colleen's house in Utah.  It was really nice to see my grandma and as an added bonus my dad was there too.  He just moved back to the states from Mexico and I hadn't seen him since Christmas.  While I helped my grandma plant up some planters out front and then we worked on sewing a Christmas yo-yo quilt (another topic for a blogging post in the future).

Charlotte had her own bed to sleep on.  Not really...I put down the sleeping bag and blanket so she wouldn't shed every where and she made herself at home.

My dad, grandma and I at Payson Lake Utah.  We drove up to watch the leaves turning color and have a picnic at the lake shore.  It was a really nice day and we all enjoyed our lunch.

Beautiful leaves turning color on our way to the lake.

After Utah I drove 9 1/2 hours to get to Dayton, Nevada to visit my mom, nana and the majority of my relatives.  We did a lot while I was there.  We went to Virginia City and watched the Port-a-potty races, drove to Lake Tahoe and had a picnic and I helped my nana make some scarecrows for her yard.

My nana and her new scarecrow

The historic mining town of Virginia City

 

A contestant in the annual Port-a-potty races

 At Lake Tahoe with my brother, mom and nana

Charlotte and Buster in the water, neither one wanted to be in there.

Well, that is the condensed version of my trip.  Charlotte and I had lots of fun.  Now that we are back I haven't wasted any time getting back into the crafting ideas.  On Sunday a steam cleaned the living room and redecorated.  I should be done very soon and will post photos of what I have been working on.  I have a lot of blogging ideas, hopefully I will find the time to get them all done!