We started off in Richland. Our godson was being baptised, and we took the drive out there so we could be there and join in the festivities. Our first stop was at Michelle's work, as they were having a gigantic company picnic. We had grilled salmon, pasta salad, coleslaw, rolls, corn and ice cream. The kids were excited to be there, everyone enjoyed the food, and there were fun things for the children to do.

First we had to sign away our rights to our children, so they could play on the structures. Amira and Elijah played in the little jump house for at least an hour.



Dominic and Alexander got to ride horses for the first time. Oddly enough, the horse people didn't make us sign the waiver first. Well, we all know about how notorious those jump house injuries are, and really who gets hurt on horses?





After we finished up at the picnic, we headed to Arthur and Michelle's house. We stayed up too late talking, catching up, laughing and eating. Early in the morning, Michelle's folks and sister came. I haven't seen Andrea since Elijah and Amira were baptised, three years ago, and I think it's been longer since I saw their parents. Her folks see me as one of the kids, though, so they were buying us pizza and ice cream and refusing to let us pay like somehow we might blow our after school job money. It was very sweet. They adored our children, of course, and played grandparents to them. Since our children know a good thing when they see it, they milked it for all it was worth. Another friend from high school happened to be in the area with her husband, and they came by for the day and for the baptism the next day as well. It was like a mini-reunion of sorts.

Saturday night, Matt gave his testimony, and they had a kind of examination of the candidate. Nerves aside, Matt was glad to be doing it, and he spoke well. Sunday morning was the big day, and his baptism was a splash. Get it? Splash? I crack myself up. I have pictures, but I haven't asked Arthur and Michelle, or Matt if it's alright to post them, so that will have to wait.

Well, you know I can't go somewhere without checking out their yarn shops, so I did. Matt knew of one that was about 12 blocks from their house, so I put Jerome in the snuggli and took a walk with the credit card. I actually didn't buy much. I needed a 16" circular needle, because I had left the one I needed at home, and I picked up a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and two skeins of Patons Soy Wool Stripes. However, I really need to plug Knitty Gritty Yarns in Richland, WA. Her shop wasn't large, but it was well organized, friendly, there was a table in the front for classes and people stopped by to knit and chat, and the owner was so nice. In the back section of the shop, there was a play area with little chairs and soft cushions, toys and books. It was clearly designed so moms could shop comfortably and the children could be occupied. She took a lot of care in the layout and feel of the place.

We left Richland Monday, and I've already told you about our dinner on the way home. That was Rich and Dominic's birthday, and Tuesday was when I did their birthday dinner at home. We gave Dominic his presents at the park in Richland before we left, so he had some fun things to look at and do in the car on the way home. So, for dinner at home, I made lasagna, salad and Italian bread. We had a banana cake with lemon-cream cheese frosting for dessert. Dominic picked the meal and the cake, because we let birthday people pick their meals. Rich has very willingly given up the right to this, because obviously birthdays matter to little people more. Speaking of birthdays, mine is in 18 days. Just, you know, reminding you, in case you forgot.

Where was I? Oh yes, back home. We cleaned up from our family party, and did lots of laundry and got ready to leave again. This time for Eugene. We took the long way there, though, stopping at my BIL's new house in Vancouver first, for dinner, then at Rich's folks' in Gresham to spend the night. On Friday, we drove down to Eugene, making a stop at Rich's grandparents' in Salem. After lunch with them, we made it the rest of the way to Eugene. A friend was waiting for us with dinner, and nice beds for us and the children. We pretty much crashed at her place, and got up to meet with one of my virtual friends at Black Sheep. Michelle was lots of fun, and her children were sweet. We stayed together as a group long enough to see the spinning wheels, and live chinchillas. Which I now want. The boys hit it off right away, and went to see the animals with Rich and Amira, and her daughter stayed with us mamas, to see all the booths. They were a delight, and it was so fun to spend time with someone who loved all this fiber stuff as much as I do.

We saw so much that was pretty and interesting, but one of my favorite things there was this:



Everything, including the rocks, branch, everything, is needle felted. I was impressed. My photo doesn't do it justice. Of course, I bought a lot of yarn.

After spending the morning at Black Sheep, we went to lunch at Track Town Pizza. We had a nice drive through campus, and I showed the kids a lot of places Rich and I used to go, and places I used to hang out in while I was in college. We went to the potluck at Black Sheep and came home to rest for the baptism the next day.

Mike and Rachelle came down from Corvallis with Kyrie, they left Ben with his grandmother, to be the godparents for Jerome. They actually took a trip to her parents, just so they could come and be godparents for Jerome. They left Olympia on Saturday, went to Eugene on Sunday, back to Corvallis and home on Sunday night. Rich's folks came down with our niece, Kayla, from Portland. The service was beautiful. Fr. Bryce gave a wonderful sermon, and it was a joy to celebrate this new member of God's family with the man who married us.

Jerome had been playing with the cat's dish at our friend's house, and we kept moving him away from it. So, when he got to put his hands in the font, and nobody stopped him, he was thrilled and was perfectly behaved for the entire baptism.



We were so happy to have Mike and Rachelle there, sharing in our joy and promising to help teach and guide Jerome in the faith. I wish I had a picture with Mike in it, but the only one we had was the side of his face. This was during the prayers over the newly baptised.



This was during the peace.



Our trip didn't end there, however. Rich's folks took our older four back with them to Portland, and Rich and I took Jerome with us to lunch with Fr. Bryce and his wife, plus our friend who took us in for the weekend. We went to a nice Thai place and had a great time. From there, we drove down to Klamath Falls, where our priest and his wife had reserved us a place at a resort so we could take a rest and have a little time to ourselves. We explored the lake, the farmland around town and a little bit of downtown Klamath Falls. And I bought yarn. Of course. Jerome even let us sleep in, so we were pretty well rested. The drive from Eugene to Klamath Falls is beautiful (take 58 to 97 rather than I-5), and the weather was perfect. We headed home rested and more relaxed. We got to Rich's folks pretty late at night, crashed and slept in as much as we could and gathered everyone to go home the next day.

We've kind of been recovering ever since, because we have had cleanup and organizing and then a holiday and now houseguests coming, but it was a lovely trip and so much fun. Which is good, because it doesn't look like we'll be travelling much the rest of the year. Everyone is coming to us from here on out. We have Arthur, Michelle and Matt coming this weekend, my friend Lisa coming a couple days later with her son and it looks like one of my cousins and his family coming in the next month. We're hoping to talk another cousin with her family to come this December, too.

So, that's it. That's what we did for our summer vacation. The rest of the summer looks pretty busy too, but should be lots of fun.

Labels: Baptism, Birthday, Black Sheep, Faith and Morality, Family

Here, at last, is the second part of the Black Sheep Report.

I believe we left off on Friday. Saturday, we slept in a little bit, had a leisurely breakfast, and Rich sent me off to Black Sheep by myself, while he took the kids on a walk to the park, via the fire station where they were given a tour by the fellow who was there.

I arrived at Black Sheep at around noon thirty. Started off in the center building and took my time looking at the different displays. There was a spinning circle, and although I don't have a wheel, I sat with them and worked on my knitting. When I was sufficiently hungry, I stopped to eat my lunch, which Rich had lovingly packed for me that morning. There were Oreos and Cheetos in there along with my healthy ham and cheese sandwich on whole grain bread and bottled water.

After lunch, I went back in to look at the prize winners for the knitting, weaving and spinning competitions. There was a really neat girl's sweater with a large lace heart on the front that I want to try to recreate. I didn't really care for the neck, and I will do different edgings around the hem and cuffs, and get rid of the honking bobbles around the heart, and make it a modified drop shoulder rather than a straight drop shoulder, but I took a close up photo of the heart so I could figure out how to make it. There were some amazing examples of color and lace and construction in the knitting categories, and the yarns that were spun were gorgeous! I don't know a whole lot about weaving, but what I saw looked nice to me.

Just around the corner from this display was a booth with these great blown glass pens, knitting needles and crochet hooks. They were out of my price range, but now that I have this handy yarn money job, I may be able to pick up a pen (I'd be afraid of the kids breaking the needles, if I left them out in a project).





Most of that afternoon, I spent wandering and chatting with people. A woman with an alpaca yarn booth was also married to a pilot and he was there. We talked about some of the changes in airlines, procedure, how flying has changed since 9-11, and I told them about the jet tie I was planning on knitting for Rich (bought the perfect red there for it). Her husband flies into our area sometimes, so I told him to look Rich up. I didn't have a whole lot to buy, since I was primarily looking for lace yarn for me, and scouting out some small companies our yarn shop wants to sell in our area.

I left the fairgrounds at around 3:30 and ran a couple errands, then went to pick up the family for the potluck at Black Sheep. Three sheep farmers donated a romney, border leicester and corriedale to be roasted for the potluck, and everyone else brought something to share. I got to spin some silk and merino on a wheel I am interested in possibly buying, and the kids ran around having a blast. The food was amazing! Amira walked around saying bye bye to everyone she passed, and making devoted followers of all who saw her.

We went home and crashed after that. We had an early day the next morning, because we needed to be packed up and checked out before we headed to church at 9:00 am. Rich and I packed up as much as we could that night, so the morning was spent putting it in the car, rather than packing it all up. We laid out the kids' clothes, our clothes and a change of clothes for after church (which we never used). Then, we had another night of reading out in the breezeway, before turning in a bit earlier.

Sunday, after church at St. Matthew's, we went to my mom's house. She had lunch waiting for us, sambousak, foul medammas, salad, and a chicken and meat dish that she swears I ate as a kid, but I can't remember, it is based on the same dough that gatayif is made of, but is savory instead of sweet, and layered (though you can make it rolled like gatayif if you want to be fancy). We brought pita bread, and had a great lunch. Mom got to see the kids running around, we got to have a pit stop before making the drive home and I got to show the kids pictures of me when I was a little girl, and pictures of my maternal family. My grandmother died a year and a half ago, and she had never met Rich or the kids, so I showed them some pictures of her and told stories about the times I had had with her.

We left there and headed up to Portland to have dinner with Rich's folks. That was a really quick stop, just long enough to eat, change diapers and make potty stops and head back on the road, because Rich had to be at work the next morning. Next time, we are planning an extra day, so we can rest on Monday.

Labels: Black Sheep

Well, we arrived in Eugene on Thursday afternoon and visited with a woman I had worked with when I was in college. She didn't know that we had a fourth child, and being a grandmother herself, she had lots of fun playing with the kids. After spending a couple of hours with her, we picked up a few necessities and headed to the hotel.

Our little place had a small kitchen with a refrigerator, two burner stove, microwave and coffee machine. When you travel with four small children, this is a necessity. The kids were exhausted, so we settled them in and I took the car to pick up breakfast and lunch foods and get some Wendy's for dinner (nobody felt like making dinner that night).

We ate dinner rather late, and just got the kids ready for bed right away. Rich and I took some chairs from the hotel and sat in the corridor with our books, my knitting and some oreos and milk, for him, coffee, for me. We took an early bedtime ourselves, though, because the next morning was the opening of Black Sheep and the Sheep to Shawl!

We got there in time to watch the Sheep to Shawl teams spinning and plying the wool (I have photos of some of this, and the finished work, for those who are interested). The shawls were woven, not knit, and the warp was already threaded on the looms. They had five teams of five, and they had five hours to complete the shawl. The shawls were judged on appearance and quality of workmanship, and if there were a tie, the winner would be the one who finished first. We checked back on this periodically as we browsed the market.

Here are some examples of the wonders awaiting people at the market:







This last shot is of some yarns that were spun and handpainted out of fiber from my high school American History teacher's sheep, alpaca and angora goats. He and his wife raise the animals, and she spins and dyes the yarn. I bought about 475 yards of handpainted suri alpaca laceweight from them. I will get a photo of that up soon. Fox Hollow Farm and Fiber should show you a little more of their stuff.

We had a nice time visiting with him, and looking back on the old days. They seemed older to him, I think, as I showed up married and with four children.

The boys were especially interested in the spinning, spinning wheels, drum carders, swifts, skein hang ups, basically the tools. This spinning wheel in particular caught our eyes.



They were all interested in the sheep and the goats and the angora rabbits, but I didn't think to take pictures of those, so you'll have to take my word that they were lovely and wonderful. We watched several shearings, and some of the demonstrations. But, that was in building four and we are still in building one.

At the place with the rainbow of roving balls in the above photos, we saw a fellow plying a beaded strand onto a single of wool. I forgot to ask if they sold it and don't have the name of the place! I would so buy beaded yarn. But, I have a picture of the yarn on the bobbin and of the plying itself.





We took a break for lunch out front, and after eating, we let the kids run around a bit.



They were being real troopers, but the day was wearing on them.

Then it was back to the market. I didn't take any classes this year, and I regret not buying any raffle tickets, but there is always next year. I sat and spun at some of the wheels that Woodland Woolworks brought. I left them reluctantly, because this year was not the year to purchase a wheel for me.

There was plenty else to tempt me while we shopped. I came largely in search of lace yarn and lace patterns and found them. I bought a pattern for an Autumn Breeze Shawl from Hokulani Farms that I saw last year, and Fiber Trends' Seascape Shawl pattern.



I very nearly bought some of this lady's yarn, at Hand Jive Knits, the purple to the lower right of the shawl. However, I waited and was rewarded by an amazing silk-camel blend at Skaska Designs. 1600 yards of it. This is an example of their shawl patterns.



There were, of course many offerings of handpainted yarns in many colorways to please the eye.





These, along with many others, are made by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. There were several of their yarns that I coveted.

At one point, I ran into a woman with whom I went to high school. It turns out that she now works at a local yarn shop in Eugene, Soft Horizons. It was fun to watch her surprise at discovering I was the mother of four, and I got to show Rich and the kids off to her.

By about 2:30, though, the kids really had had enough. They went to bed late, woke up early, had no nap or quiet time and had spent all day walking around Black Sheep (or being pushed around in the stroller, which is also quite nice for holding your knitting bag, purchases, etc). So, we headed back toward the hotel, stopping to pick up some sandals for Alexander and Amira (they had a 60% off sale at Payless). Alexander picked out some particularly hideous sandals, that I knew he would love, because the sales lady described them as water socks. I wish she had just pointed out the sandals and kept her mouth shut, but there you go. Amira was asleep in the car with Rich and the other boys, and she makes no complaints or requests about how we dress her yet, so I brought sandals out to her to measure against her sleeping feet, and picked out some adorable white leather sandals with bows.

That night, we had our dinner with Fr. Bryce and Deanna, who also had their daughter in law and New Baby Grandson visiting them from England. I think we overwhelmed this only child, first time mother, but she seemed to like us anyway. We had a nice little barbecue in their backyard and ate s'mores. We missed out on getting the picture of Amira covered from head to toe in toasted marshmallow and chocolate. She's so lucky, we never let the boys eat stuff like that at her age.

The kids, feeling no reserve or shyness, immediately grabbed the box of toys that were out and loudly played trucks and whatever else was there. Amira really took off on her walking this past weekend. She was doing alright walking from one wall to another, or a piece of furniture to another one, but she finally really got going this weekend. So, I will leave you with a parting shot from our last day there. And you can take a look at those sandals!

Labels: Black Sheep

I really mean it this time. We are heading down today, well tonight. We're stopping at the kids' grandparents for dinner, visiting with a friend and staying the night with them. Tomorrow, we will continue down and stop at the great grandparents before getting settled.

This is the first trip down that we aren't planning on visiting with tons of people in town in a long time. Except for Fr. Bryce, and my mom, there aren't really any people we were friends with who still live in the area. Rich asked if there was anyone in particular I wanted to catch up with, but I couldn't think of anyone who still lived there. If we run into someone, I guess we could visit, but they would be on a visit home, too.

I will take lots of pictures at Black Sheep, and of Deanna in her shawl. Rich said it took a lot for him not to blurt it out that a gift was coming for her when Fr. Bryce called to confirm dinner plans. If they have seen this blog, they already know, but I don't know that they spend a lot of time on knitting blogs.

See you when we return!

Labels: Black Sheep

I will likely only post once more, if at all, before we head down to Black Sheep. Clue 2 on the Mystery Stole has been completed, and I've begun Clue 3, but not made much progress. I will be bringing it and Amira's dress and Elijah's sweater on the trip. I will be buying lace things, largely while I am down there, and we'll be there in time to see the Sheep to Shawl!

I don't know whether or not I'll bring Dominic's sweater, I am almost finished with the back, and may cast on for the front before we leave. We'll see, as his birthday party is tomorrow evening, and we have lots of work on the house and yard to do still. Not to mention the packing up, another birthday party to attend and the travelling.

Our families are providing lots of our favorite foods on our trip, that will be a treat, and we are visiting with a friend who is back in the US from Israel for a few weeks. She's one of the few friends from college with which we still keep in touch, her husband is still in Israel at yeshiva, but she is bringing her son to visit with their families.

I cannot wait to visit with Fr. Bryce and Deanna, and we are looking forward to seeing them and visiting St. Matthew's. I hope she likes the shawl.

Well, back to work here. I will try to post once more before we leave.

Labels: Black Sheep