The Stationary Motorcycle Accident

Tuesday night I had a meeting and left the house a little after 7. I thought I was lost and called Roy to have him look at the mapquest that was still on the computer but I found the house just as he answered the phone. I went in to the meeting and turned my phone off. At about 8:15 I turned the phone on and was driving the 2 miles home when Roy called. He sounded bad and I asked if he was okay, he said no, that the motorcycle had fallen on his head. Now, it did run through my mind that he was kidding, but it wasn't funny. I was almost home so I hurried into the house and he was resting on the table with ice on his head. I moved the ice and there was a big gash behind his right ear (no stitches needed), the ear was also swollen. He said he was okay and told me that he was working on the motorcycle and he moved the kick stand and the bike tipped over on him while he was on the floor. He tried to call me and the message he left on the cell phone was just groaning. We think he passed out for a bit but can't figure out how he got out from under the motorcycle. I think his Guardian Angels helped him out and kept the bike from smashing him. I called a neighbor and he came and stood the bike up, it was still tipped over, not all the way but sideways. I said, "Get in the car we are going to the Emergency Department." and he didn't argue, just climbed in the car. We were at the ED for about two hours and they did a CT scan. Everything looked okay but there have been a couple of people recently who said they were fine after a head injury and died. He has been really sore and had a heck of a headache for the last two days. He finally feels better today (Thursday). Can't tell you how much I love motorcycles=) This is so weird I can't believe it really happened.

Stretched Stars

This is a great idea I had a few years ago. Finally got the top done and now it is off to be quilted. I love the stretched stars.

Rowan Benjamin

Rowan with his mom and dad.


Here are all four of Michelle's boys: Deacon, Maddox, Rowan, and Marx.


What a sweet little boy. He is a good nurser and knows the difference between night and day. He was kinda little, 7 pounds, 18 inches.


Here is Rowan on the monkey quilt. At first he looked like Deacon's twin but now I think he looks like his sweet mama=)

Prescott 09

Each year my team (from school) goes to Prescott to Cilla's cabin (again not really a cabin...air conditioning) and spend a few days pounding out the beginning of the year and curriculum. We have a great time and then it's back to reality. We had an extra treat this year by going for breakfast at Sue's house, before we headed to Prescott, and getting a tour of the newly refurbished home. It was a great time but I still don't want to go back to work.

The Most Fun of All

The boys looking through a meteorite at the Natural History Museum.


Marx and Will with the salt dough.


Jack has figured out where he is on the food chain and is taking advantage of every bite.


I wish you could see that she has a baby is each arm and then the puppy in the purse. She was taking excellent care of all of her responsibilities=)


Charly and Deacon at Joe's Barbeque.


Will conquered the puzzle of the United States.


Michelle conquered the hydrogen rocket we got at a yard sale but it didn't launch very well. We need to try that one again.


Launching rockets is not just for young boys=)


Another success!!


Papa saved the day with a water fight.

Marx and Maddox rolled into town July 8 from Florida. Marx was baptized on the 10th and that was just the beginning of our fun. We played with salt dough, watched movies, went to the Natural History Museum, launched rockets, went to the park, cooked, cleaned, ate, made ice cream, baked cookies, played with legos, shot the reactor guns, talked, made necklaces and bracelets, went yard saleing, shopped for school clothes, visited the new baby, held the new baby, slept in a tent, read books, went shopping for books, and some other things I can't remember. It was a fun time with the family. We really missed Greg, Cambria, Alan, and Molly.

Wild Hog

The Wild Hog headed for parts uncharted at the end of June. Actually Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah, let's not forget Arizona. He was gone a lot longer than I thought he should have been. Two weeks is a long time and 4400 miles is a long distance. I've decided that nothing can ever happen to Roy or Saffron because I can't get along without either one of them=)

Quilt Retreat June 09

I don't know why I bought so much of this fabric. It is pretty but I don't think I need two of them.

This is for the newest little monkey, Rowan=)

It's really not a cabin, more of a mansion=)


We didn't have a design wall so we used the design bed. This is the pinwheel quilt that everyone else made.


I have been part of a quilt group for about 7 years and this year we went to the 'cabin' of one of the members for 4 days. This was a little bit of heaven. We cooked for each other and ate pretty well. Then there was sewing, napping, chatting, walking, movie watching, or whatever we could think of. Everyone else started the pinwheel quilt but I have too many half done projects to start one more. I didn't finish these tops at the cabin, but I worked on them there. I'm putting this on my list to do again=)

Yard Sale Buy of the Day

Here's a cute little yard sale "Buy of the Day". The lady I bought it from would not go down on the price but I couldn't resist. There are always yard sales down here, people are always moving. At this time of year I'm done by 8 am.

Cataract Canyon June 09

Summer School ended on Thursday and the following Tuesday we headed to Moab, UT to go rafting down Cataract Canyon. This is a great trip and I love baby wipes, they make life on the river much more pleasant=) My perch is about 100 ft above the river. It rained at this camp site and there was a wall of rain that came across the water and pelted us.


The water was high (~28,000 cfs) and cold, many of the rapids were class 5. There wasn't a lot of floating in the water this year=( There was a group of docs on this trip that had way too much to drink and they were obnoxious. In spite of that we had a great time.


The question is: Where does one take care of bodily functions on the river? Here is a picture of the groover that we use for number 2, number 1 goes in the river. There is a lid that gets attached and the groover goes into the raft and rides wherever we go.


We had a raft flip and three of the straps broke that held the frame in. We had trouble getting all of the swimmers out of the river and it got a bit scary. Here is a YouTube link of Karen's flip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pesDpsCWIP0 This footage was taken by a guide from another company who was scouting the rapids before he went down.


We had a great time and I'm looking forward to going again. It's the same 125 miles of river, but it's different every time.

Summer School

The day after we got back from Hawaii I started summer school. I had 4 kids in a rocketry class and 16 kids in a sewing class. It felt like I was in a blender. There were 15 sewing machines, but I could only get 10 to work. We got into a rhythm and my sewing kids were amazingly well behaved, they produced 12 pair of pajama pants/shorts, 4 quilts, 1 pieced pillow, and about 8 bags. My youngest sewer was going into 4th grade and the oldest one was going into 8th. Cute, Cute, kids. We launched 5 rockets two times each and only lost one to a rocket eating tree=0 You will notice that one of my sewing students was a boy and he did a great job.

Hawaii

On May 23 we headed to Hawaii, our first big trip in 32 years. Our first tour was on the DUCK, an old amphibious vehicle from the war. We toured Honolulu and Pearl Harbor with a little water trip to Sand Island.


We drove the island and on Memorial Day we went to the Punch Bowl-a veteran’s cemetery located in an old caldera. There were 50,000 graves decorated with a flag and a lei. It was very awe inspiring.




We were headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center and I was the navigator. I could feel my head bobbing and my eyes closing but we were almost there so I didn’t worry too much. I woke up quite a while later to find we had traveled about 15 miles farther than we needed to so we were a bit late. You would think on an island there would be much danger of getting lost but we did a few times. The PCC was fun and we spent the entire day experiencing Polynesian culture including the luau and the program at night. We didn’t get lost going home=) We played in the water at Waikiki beach and in the evening at the Banyan Tree watched the programs.


View from the Royal Grove. Waikiki Beach.



We headed to the island of Hawaii and were greeted by Kristi and Steviann. Kristi’s hair is shorter than mine which must be a first. We went to their house in paradise and got to tour what they have been working on for 17 years. We had great food and got to sleep in the new bedroom addition with a beautiful bathroom. We saw most of the coffee growing/processing at their home and it is a tremendous amount of work. We had so much fun with the Hill's, we hadn't seen them for years and it was just like old times!!!


Can you see the little bananas? They are called Apple Bananas and they are the perfect size.



We went to the volcanos and couldn’t see very well but we did walk through the Thurston Lava Tube. Later in the evening we traveled to the place where the flowing lava meets the ocean and saw the glowing red mass and smelled the sulfur. The park ranger said when the sulfur hits your lungs and gets some moisture it turns to sulfuric acid, isn’t that nice???


One of these 'rocks' is not like the other. Do you see it??



We went to the black sand beach and it was incredibly beautiful. The sand is like little crystals lying all about. There were green sea turtles lazing about. I wanted some of that black sand soooo bad, but there are signs everywhere telling about fines. I didn’t have enough money to pay the fines and even then I bet they take the sand away.


We went to town and had moco local rice on the bottom and a huge hamburger patty next , on top of that were two fried eggs and it was all smothered in gravy. It was the best food on the trip when we ate out. Kristi is a great cook and her food was the best on our trip. We had a terrific time with the Hill’s.





We headed out to our Bed and Breakfast in Kona and you would think with only one road we wouldn’t get lost but dang it was dark and we are incredibly talented. Also, the road signs aren’t the greatest...The B & B was fabulous with amazing breakfasts that kept us going until lunch.



We went snorkeling at Captain Cook. First we had to kayak out to the monument and then we could snorkel. We were rewarded as soon as we put our masks in the water, it was just like the Discovery Channel. Roy wants to buy a waterproof camera because it was sooo beautiful. We went snorkeling again the next day at another beach. The reef wasn’t nearly as healthy and there were too many people for my liking, but there were green sea turtles and I almost ran into one while snorkeling. There was an aggressive little brown fish that kept charging us, I guess we were in his territory.




After rescheduling our appointment for the Temple about 6 times we got there Thursday evening for a session.



We went back to Honolulu to stay in the amazing Royal Grove Hotel to stay the night, this time no a/c.


On the way to the airport we stopped at the Harley Davidson shop to see what Roy needed for his motorcycle and then headed back to reality. There is more to see and do and I can’t wait to go back.