I WON!

On Monday, Aimee and I submitted some of our jewelry to the fair to be judged. I'm so excited to say that we both won! I dragged Kyla and Liam to the fair grounds this afternoon in the heat because I couldn't wait to see how we did. I bribed them with lemonade so they happily obliged.

I've been playing with chainmaille lately. This is a 4-in-1 Japanese pattern bracelet. It won third place.

These are the earrings that I submitted. I got second place. You can just make out my ring on the left side

This one is hard to see, but it's a 6-in-1 Japanese pattern necklace. It won second place.

These are Aimee's entries. All of her jewelry is recycled from different plastic bottles, like from dishwasher detergent, coffee containers and laundry soap. I'm proud to say that she won first for her bracelet, second for her pin cushion ring and third for her earrings and necklace.

I had also submitted a ring, but it didn't win anything. First, second and third places all win a small monetary prize, but it's the cheezy ribbons and bragging rights that Aimee and I were after. Plus, I think it was brave of us just to enter. While we were standing in line, I almost chickened out. I wasn't sure what some of the other entries would look like and I was afraid that mine wouldn't stand a chance.

While looking at all of the other entries, it dawned on me that judging is subjective. There were a few pieces there that I was shocked to see hadn't won anything. They were complex - more like works of art than jewelry. And some of the pieces that won, like the first place prize for earrings, were boring and unimaginative. What does that say about the judge?

We plan on going back to the fair as a family some time next week. I'm excited to have a look around at everything else.

Swan Falls

Yesterday evening we took the kids to Swan Falls so the girls could try out their fishing poles. I hadn't been there in a long time. It's one of my favourite spots and is only about 45 minutes west of here.

Moira and Morgan were very proud of the sea weed they caught.

Kyla being attentive and patient with her fishing.

The cliffs above the dam is a popular spot for hang gliders and paragliders.

At one point, there were six paragliders above us. Liam was fascinated by them.

He made sure that Morgan saw them too.

A lizard that Morgan found on a rock.

A view of the Snake River from the dock.

The one and only fish that was caught.

This house is just used for storage now, but this is where the dam care taker once lived.

A view of the dam from the park.

This is the river as you see it (facing east) when driving up out of the canyon.

The river and dam from the top of the canyon, facing west.

Kyla Gets her Ears Pierced

After months of bugging me, I finally let Kyla get her ears pierced this morning. She was so brave. She didn't cry and only flinched a little while her second ear was getting done. Look how cute she is!

Defining Words

I recently finished reading a book called "Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a really great book and I recommend it to anyone who has every searched for themselves.

While she was in Italy, she had a conversation with a friend about the "word of the street". According to him, the word of the street in Rome is SEX, the Vatican is POWER and Naples is FIGHT. The author decided that the word of the street in New York City is ACHIEVE. Then they go on to talk about what the word of her family was while she was growing up and then to what her own word is.

That got me thinking about what my word is. I've been thinking about it for weeks now. The closest thing that I can come up with is TRY. I try so hard every day to be a good mum and wife, daughter and sister. I try really hard to be kind and courteous to the people around me. I try hard to be as creative as I can in my jewelry and all of my other endeavors. I try to do whatever I can for Idaho Indie Works so that my colleagues and I can be successful. I try my best every single day. The reason that my word is TRY is because I don't want to be mediocre. Anyone can do that. I want to be better than that. So, should my word be ACHIEVE instead? I don't know. I don't aspire to be a CEO of a major corporation or to make lots of money. I just want to be better than average because I know that I'm not average. I have a mind and I want to use it.

What is your word?

Can just one word define who a person is, what their motivation is? Possibly. I do think that if you find a word today that defines you, it may not be the same in the future. That's the great thing about being human - we have the capacity to change. I like that.

(The author did eventually find her word months later while she was reading in India. You'll have to pick up a copy of her book and find out for yourself what that word is.)

Enumclaw Highland Games

This past weekend, we were in Enumclaw, Washington again for the Highland Games. Erica drove down to spend the weekend with us and my nephew, Morgan, was able to make the journey with us as well.

The games were very slow. A lot of vendors, pipe bands and dog people were not there. It was really sad to see how the bad economy could suck the life out of something so fun. But I'm not going to dwell on that because we had a good time anyway.

We went letterboxing, and got to watch the dog agility trials. The kids participated in some of the athletic games. Erica and I even had fun shopping at Safeway and playing a few rounds of crib.

Moira bought a little hummingbird finger puppet. She took advantage of the flowers to have a snack.

On Sunday night, this white moth flew into our camp site and stayed for quite a while. It didn't want to leave and showed special attention to Morgan. The moth kept us entertained for quite a while.

A Pool, a Slide and a Yoga Ball

This is what a boring Sunday afternoon looks like at our house.

This is the slide that Jimmy and Will built. Kind of gives a new meaning to the word "jimmy".






After a few beers the guys decided that if they turned the slide around, it would make a great diving platform.

Here is Will doing a cannonball. Everyone was

impressed with his gargantuan splash.

This is Kordon jumping off with the yoga ball.

The object of this game was to hang on to

it through the dive and resurfacing.

Letterboxing

A few weeks ago someone told me about letterboxing and I was so intrigued by it that Moira and I have started looking for them. Letterboxes are little containers hidden all over North America by individuals. Some have direct instructions on how to find them and some have clues that you need to figure out to be able to track down their location. Inside each "box" is a stamp and a notebook. When you find the "box" you place your own stamp inside their notebook and their stamp in your notebook. It's a fun hobby to be able to collect the stamps and a neat thing that we can all do.

I decided to start searching for our first letterbox while we were in Athena this past weekend. There are quite a few here in town, but since we were going to be away, why not try to find one while we were gone. On Saturday night after the games were over for the day, we took a drive into Pendleton and found our first box. It was really exciting to search for it and then finally finding it. I'm looking forward to looking for some more and maybe hiding a box of my own.

Our first letterbox

Moira putting her stamp into the letterbox log

My log book with my first stamp