Author: eaumaison (Page 43 of 207)

We celebrated our fifteenth anniversary with a long dinner at Simms Steakhouse. Getting married remains one of our best decisions. Celebrating our happy family we've built. We've come a long way.

Great news:

• Everything looks good, break was not that bad.
• Walking boot acquired = no more crutches!
• “Post-op hard sandal” acquired = legal for Ben to drive while wearing this!

We are thrilled.  He’ll go back in two weeks for x-rays, then again at the end of six weeks since the injury.  Pain in minimal-to-none.  Swelling and bruising is substantial but expected.  New mobility options will do a lot of morale.  Yay!!

Jack and Sam wanted to go to the zoo last week, but the crowds were insane for some special event.  We promised that we would go the next weekend, when it will be International Tiger Day.  That was exciting news for my little tiger lovers.  We couldn’t let a broken ankle break our promise!

We arrived and had a quick snack from VooDoo Donuts before going inside.

I’ve learned that wearing work-out clothes is the best option for spending half a day at the zoo.  Too much walking and heat to bother with nice clothes and shoes!  The hip pack and mini cooler slung around my neck really finish the outfit.

Our zoo has a new tiger exhibit called the Edge.  It’s a larger and more varied habitat, back where the camels used to be behind the Northern Shores area.  Jack had already seen the new tiger home during his spring field trip at the end of first grade.  There were extra activity tables, volunteers, and tiger demonstrations for the special day.

There’s also this weird “Dinos Live!” exhibit through the fall.  Large animatronic dinosaurs are scattered throughout the park.  They sway their heads and tails, open eyes and mouth, and have recorded sounds.  The kids loved them.

After the Tiger show we had lunch and watched the Elephant demonstration.

We rounded out the trip with penguins, the bird palace, a primate visit near monkey island, and saw the mountain goats and sheep.  When we had circled half the zoo and were back at the entrance the kids let it be known that they REALLY wanted to see the komodo dragons  The lizards live on the edge of the park inside Tropical Discovery – where we had spent most of the morning watching sea otters and waiting for the tiger demonstration.  Really guys?  Sigh.  I parked Ben’s chair in the lion house in case of rain and trekked back east to get a look at those dragons.  Satisfied, we passed the polar bears, giraffes, and zebras for the third time today and finally left.

It was a fun trip and I’m glad we went.  It’s fairly handicapped accessible, as zoos go.  Sam couldn’t remember going before (though he has at least three times) so everything was exciting and new to him.  At one point he asked me if the rhino was real, and I wondered if he was having a hard time discerning the real animals with the fake dinosaurs there too.  Educational trip

Our monkey faces

Yesterday morning Ben twisted his ankle while taking out the trash. He said he heard a snap and it was rapidly swelling. A trip to urgent care confirmed my suspicion: he broke his ankle!

The good news is they said it was a clean break through the lateral malleolus of his fibula. It's lined up nicely and shouldn't need pins or other surgery to help it heal. The bad news is it's his right foot, so we are unsure how long he cannot drive. He has an appointment with orthopedics next week. Fingers crossed he can get a walking boot!

Figured I should share the finished product:

This is the first of two shawls I made this summer. I ended up following the original pattern almost to completion, then ripped it out and started again. I combined the pattern with another I like. Many details posted on my ravelry page.

I love it. Blanket-like, bright happy colors, and a delicate lace pattern.

Oh I hate July. Summer, please end, I hate you.

Jack loves to read.  I took some pictures of him reading during two lazy summer afternoons.

We rounded out July with another trip to visit grandparents.  There was A. Lot. of swimming.  Jack worked hard to coordinate using a snorkel for the first time and he had great success!  He and Sam both enjoyed the novelty of flippers until their feet were raw with blisters from the rubber.  They swam every morning and every evening for the weekend we were there.

One of the office staff had baby goats the Friday we arrived.  She invited us over to see the farm animals.  The boys were very brave and outgoing petting and feeding the goats and horses, and pestering the sweet kitty.

Sam drew a thank you card, with complete goat anatomy.  Can you spot the eyes, nose, horns, beard, and “pumps”? (“Because it’s a woman goat.”)

Here’s a hodgepodge of photos I took over the summer.

Keeping cool with friends

Coming home from Art Camp

The boys had to keep working hard even when school was out!

I made s’mores treats with marshmallows, chocolate, and Golden Grahams.  They were amazing.

Exploring Hyatt Lake at a church picnic

Mini Golfing Adventures

Discovering the joy of Kinetic Sand

After church video games in coordinating clothes

Early morning Star Wars

This is called yarn chicken:

When you are binding off with a limited amount of yarn and hope it’s enough.

I play it often, wanting to squeeze all I can out of each skein.  

 But this one is a doozy.  Roughly 1,400 stitches across with a bind off that’s a pain-in-the-butt to undo if you have to rip it out (“Icelandic bind-off”).  I’m going to be very cranky when this doesn’t quite fit…but I’m too bull-headed to chicken out first.

. . .

Later today:

Dang it!  So close.  I’m going to try something radical.  Instead of picking back the bind off and the previous row, I’m going to drop the remaining stitches and try to bind off using the top row- in essence only ripping out my remainder.  It might be a little lopsided but with blocking it won’t be very noticeable.  Fingers crossed this works!

(Taken before blocking)

Esjan, one of several projects I finished recently.  This is a pattern from “celebrity” knit designer Stephen West.  I loved the large size and crazy, loopy tiers.  I made sure to stop by Purl Soho while in NYC to get yarn for it.  I love buying yarn as a souvenir!

I ended up knitting this shawl twice.  The first time I made a few mods to the pattern to account for my chosen yarn being smaller than what the pattern called for.  Still too small, and with too much leftover gray, I decided to rip the whole thing out and start again.

For those who always ask me how long it takes to knit – I made this twice in less than a month while simultaneously knitting a complete pair of socks, 4 inches of a fine gauge sleeve, and a few thousand stitches on another shawl.

I really liked the ruffles which naturally occur from the pattern.  However, I wanted to smooth out the garter stitch tension and make it as large and blanket-like as possible.  I gently blocked it and it grew magnificently.  The edge flattened into a large zig-zag – not ruffles but still fun (I expected this based on the pattern photos and other ravelry users).

Before blocking

After blocking

Tomorrow I’ll take up my other shawl sitting on needles.  It’s fingering weight (smaller yarn, takes longer to knit the same area size) and I had to buy more yarn from the shop in GJ when I was out last week.  I also completed it once, then ripped it out completely to start again with a modified pattern.  I should really stop doing that