Grateful Day 24: X

One of my favorite things to do is to go on an eXcursion with the family and whoever else might happen to tag along!

Though we had never been to Dead Horse Ranch State Park before, we ended up there twice in a matter of a month. The first time, the kids and I went down for an event they were having there (Verde River Days or something like that) and met up with Geoff's mom. We went and checked out the Tuzigoot Indian ruins afterwards. The next time we all went and a student of Geoff's joined us for the day. This time we took up to Jerome afterwards and cruised around for a bit then. I think I forgot my camera that day. Very unusual.

Kaya's new nightgown

B picked out this piece of flannel about a year ago and it has been floating around in the closet ever since then. Well, in observation of my word for 2009 - ACTION - it has finally fulfilled it's purpose in life.

This was the pattern used, but "Kaya," being Nez Perce, opted for a less pink and frilly version:

And a girl's doll ought to be modest, too, so the teeny scraps were stretched to eek out some under-shorts.

Most (all?) ready-made doll clothing uses Velcro for fastening, but it gets caught in the dolls hair, and on other things (the Velcro on L's shoes snagged and tore her new tights in multiple spots on Sunday), and as you can see in the first picture, pulls Kaya's hair out of her braids. (A random personal note: Velcro pretty much annoys me in general.)

So instead of the Velcro called for in the pattern, snaps were used and work just fine.

It took all of about 2 hours to make this - something that has been put off for months and could easily have been done and being used.

More evidence

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. Fortunately it had warmed up by the time soccer started and the wind was much less than on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we went out for a drive and hike around the peaks. It was good we brought their winter coats, but would have been nice to have their gloves, too!!!
They brought some of their art supplies and made some pictures (when we found a spot out of the wind - there were gusts that day of 50-60 mph we heard).
Little L looked more grown up to me in her new jeans and coat... She's a pretty good little hiker for a 4yo.
We took a trail that was new to us that went up to this old cabin built in the 1890s. (It has been cut down in height for safety.) There are also some old pictographs in the rocks up behind it (supposedly estimated to be about 1000 years old...).
After that we ventured out to the cabin of some friends from church - basically went "off roading" in our van! We all enjoyed hanging out with them for a while. It ended up being a pretty late night! It surprised me that no one asked for food while we were there. On the way home they said they were just enjoying the time too much to think about it. (Again, if you know our family, you will recognize this as abnormal behavior! They never forget about food...)

Sunday went pretty well, ending with an opportunity to have coffee with a friend that was a fun blessing.

Another garage sale, tortoise, and violin

Today we loaded up everything from our previous garage sale and hauled it all in to Geoff's work, set it up again, and gave it another try. It went a little better this time, but there was still tons left over. We gave much of it to his coworkers' and students' families. Here the kids are playing with some of the children of one of Geoff's students at the Indian Bible College. They have a fascinating heritage - they are from Supai, which is in the bottom of part of the Grand Canyon. You can read about it in this very interesting book (which I checked out at the library): Here we are picking up and checking out a tortoise. Interesting pet!Last night the kids had a little, informal, outdoor, group, violin recital.