Family Tree Tote Bag

Our Hatch family reunion this year spotlighted the best Grandmother of all time- Grandma Clayton. If you read this blog with any sort of regularity, you probably have an inkling why I think that she is so wonderful. Mom had the idea of giving her a family tree tote because Grandma loves bags and is always doing family history. So I took this little project on and had a fun time designing it and sewing it. I wanted to share pictures of the end product. Claire, the cat, also wanted to see my creation. Okay, to be completely honest, she just wanted to sniff it and sit on it. But I'll pretend she was admiring it.

The inside of the bag had a fun owl print,
and the back side had a pocket with the words, "I have a family tree, with branches by the dozens.." embroidered on it.

Some of the family leaves....
Presenting it to Grandma at the reunion. She's wearing her "star of the show" crown. :-)Doesn't she look cute? I love you Grandma Clayton!!! :-)

What a day!

Did I ever tell you about Aug 13? The day we were packing up to camp at our big Hatch family reunion in Utah? The day I had a fever, sore throat, there was no water in the house, the neighbor girl put Leif's diaper on for me and it ended up being on sideways, but I didn't notice because since I didn't feel real well I had decided to take a small nap, and then Leif had a blow out, luckily only on linoleum surfaces- which he made sure included surfaces of the kitchen, dining room, AND pantry. Yes, that was quite a day. Joel and I ran him to the tub, because of course, by this time it was even on his head (Leif's personal record for a blowout), only to find that there was NO water coming out of the faucet. Luckily we remembered there is a river water spigot in the back yard, so I cleaned him up out in the grass while Joel jumped on the motorcycle to go off in pursuit of a fix for the well. With Joel gone, I decided to forgo the nap and continue working on packing tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses, jackets, swimming suits, clothes, and oh you know- the ten million things it seems you need for one weekend of camping. All was quiet as I packed and I thought to myself, "Self, why are you getting so much accomplished?? Oooh- Leif!! Where is the baby?" Well, he was found eating stash of Dove chocolates I keep under my side of the bed. By this time I was laughing helplessly because it was his messiest day ever and we still had no running water. A quick run back to the river water spigot then back to packing. Our house by this time was almost 90 degrees because I hadn't turned on the AC that day because I had expected us to be done with packing and gone before it got that hot. But getting sick that morning had slowed me down and so now we were packing in a raging hot house. Oh, it was a lovely, lovely day that I won't soon forget. I won't get into the details of that night and how I finally had Leif sleep in the bathtub at grandma's house-- don't worry, I made it very comfortable for him. But anyhoo, thanks for reading, and I hope you have yourself a good healthy day with plenty of clean running water.

p.s. 6 days later, after having a fever and sore throat for what seemed like eons, I went to the doctor and found out I had strep throat. So I am apologizing to the entire Hatch family for sharing more than just weekend memories. I hope none of you contracted any of my germs.

July in Review

Here are a bunch of random things I wanted to post about last month, but didn't get around to. Because it is almost 1 in the morning, I am going to simplify by combining them into one big post!

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For my 35 birthday I wanted to float Billingsley Creek so Joel and I tried it out. (Okay, actually I wanted to take him to Blue Heart Springs but we were running short of time and the wind was picking up so I settled for Billingsley Creek) Pretty uneventful except for running into a huge pipe that crossed the whole creek. We had to squeeze the kayak under the pipe, then one of us at a time would get ON the pipe and then jump in the kayak from the other side. It's always fun to have an adventure...
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And speaking of adventures: here is one of my best friends: Jenny. She's always up for an outdoor adventure!! ******
Baby eating strawberries AND grass at Niagara Springs. They make a yummy combo in case you were wondering.

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Torsten went on his first big hike- a 30 miler up in the Sawtooths. He saw some beautiful country during that week. Those mountains make my heart swoon.


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Here we are milking Bessie while her owners were out of town. She really didn't care for the new routine. Who could blame her? We were in a hurry because we were losing daylight so at one point there were 3 of us milking her at the same time....after 40 minutes she adamantly backed out of the shoot and went back to the pasture. I think we were just to darn slow for her liking. (If you look carefully, you'll see Heidi milking on the other side.)

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On our way to Koosharem we stopped in Manti to see the beautiful temple..........and run down the huge hill.
Breathtaking. The sky was georgous that day.
Leif and Farfar Pearson (that's Swedish for Grandpa, in case you're wondering) at the kitchen table in Koosharem.******
And now it is waaaaaay past my bed time so I'll say good night. Good Night! :-)
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The computer is finally not tied up by my kids working on their summer classes and my mind can't settle on anything in particular to blog about. Hmmmm..... I really think all creative brain cells have escaped my body in the last few months! Will they ever come back? Does their departure have anything to do with nursing a cute baby night and day? Can I also use that same "brain drain" excuse to explain my having to return TWICE in the same afternoon to the local dancewear store, first to retrieve the clogging shoe I forgot there and then to retrieve my credit card I had also forgot? My inquiring mind wants to know.But no matter the state of my brain the last few months, (okay, maybe it's never been in perfect running order) this little feller is certainly worth it. He's the love of our life right now!! :-)