Yarn Along on Vacation

I just got home from one of the best vacations I have ever been on.

My inlaws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking all of us and my husband's sister's family to Disney World. We are blessed to come from such amazing families with strong marriages to set an example, love of family and knowing how to have fun!!!

Every morning, I drank my coffee on the balcony of our villa and snuck some
knitting time in before the busy Disney days began.

I casted on this triangular scarf/shawl, Cameo when we left for Florida.

I am using some fingering weight wool I bought back in May at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It's from the Verdant Gryphon Yarn booth. The colors are amazing but don't show up well in this camera phone shot. But you get the idea...It's a varigated mix of teals, purples, greens and magenta. The second color will be teal.

And just a few vacation shots....

My niece, nephew and my three boys at Animal Kingdom Lodge after a great breakfast

View from our room and the small villa pool. The big one was out front. It was amazing!

 Chase and my mother in law watching the fountains at Epcot

 The crew in Hollywood Studios

Seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time. Who's more excited???

 My husband and our niece

....and a very happy, sleepy toddler that did extremely well

A big thank you to my family that took care of the dog while we gone!

Now back to reality....

A new baby alpaca is due any day so hoping for fun baby pictures soon!!!

Joining with Ginny for the yarn along.

Reflecting

What seems like only yesterday....my mom and dad welcomed their first alpacas to the farm.

This is Kal and Awan, my mom and my older boys. They look so little!

I got thinking today that this "alpaca thing" has become huge.

Not long ago (3 years), 8 alpacas called this place home.

As of today, 25 alpacas graze the fields, pronk and hum.

And any day now, there will be 26.

My mom is officially the Alpaca Lady.

She spends every day out there with her animals.

Cleaning, tending, feeding, hosing down, thinking about, loving and working

her butt off for these critters.

The alpacas have brought a lot into the lives of this family.

A common love of yarn, knitting, crocheting, crafting, animals, friendships,

farm life and fleece have kept us busy.

People stop by daily to say hi to these cute creatures.

We've been in the newspapers, on tv and the internet.

We've started blogs to talk about all things farmy and knitting.

We've met other "alpaca people"

We've met other knitters and fleece lovers.

We've had happy births.

We've had sad births.

We've welcomed many loving and funny animals.

We've also had to say goodbye to the sweetest boy.

We've spend numerous hours reading weird posts on PacaThis on Facebook.

We've learned a lot.

 

It's been a busy 3 years for my mom and dad!

 

Chase is 2!!!

2 years ago today, we welcomed baby Chase.

He was my dream come true. To have a family of three children.

I was the happiest I had ever been. This photo was taken

on our first morning after being home from the hospital.

It was the calmest I had ever felt.....

The past 2 years have been a joy, a pleasure, exhausting, tiring, full of laughter and smiles

all because of this crazy, silly, wonderful little boy.

 He can make everyone laugh. He can drive you crazy.

He loves his brothers more than anything on earth (well....except his cousin Wade)

He loves wagon walks, playing in the dirt, Barney and Mickey Mouse.

Baseball games, alpacas, lollipops, books and the beach are his top favorites.

He is my love, this one. My dream come true.

A boy with a huge personality...good and bad!

He makes us laugh every single day. 

 

We are blessed to have these 3 boys. They are good kids.

Happy, HEALTHY, helpful and fun. They allow me to do my favorite job and
the only one I ever wanted. Their Mom.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Baby Chase.

Please be kind to us during the terrible twos. We're old now and

hoping to survive this "lovely" stage of your life!!!!

xoxoxoxoxo

Yarn Along

Hi! I've been away from this blog for a few days due to work, baseball and busy summertime fun.

So, it's nice to be back on a Wednesday to share in the yarn along.

I'm really excited to start my first felted knitted bag.

I casted on with some wool from my stash and it's just simple stockinette for 15".

Very nice and relaxing! Ravelry Link to bag pattern: Felted Little Bag

 I started reading the book, Plainsong. Basically, it was the only book at Costco that looked interesting enough that I hadn't already read. So far, it's very good.

I also wanted to share this book with you. I know a lot of our blog readers have young kids.

This book, Show Me A Story, is a great book that I got for my 9 year old.

He doesn't like to write but he's creative and has some artistic ability.

We are enjoying it and it's been a great tool to get him excited about storytelling.

And because I really needed another hobby.....

I ordered this embroidery sample from the etsy shop, Dropcloth. 

I saw this on Susan Anderson's blog and I was chomping at the bit to make one too.

I used to do a lot of hand work with quilting and embroidery but knitting has taken

over for the past 5 or so years. I forgot how much I love doing this.

I signed up for this online class by Rebecca Ringquist on CreativeBug.com 

It's been fun to do.

 

And I'm excited to show you my finished Terra Shawl.

Ravelry Link: Robin Egg Terra Shawl

I love knitting Jared Flood's designs. I left off the last chart because

I was nervous about running out of yarn. 

I hand dyed the baby alpaca yarn to look like the robin eggs that we watched

hatch during the spring.

Joining in again with Ginny and all the other great knitters out there.

Happy 14th wedding anniversary to my husband :)

We'll be spending a romantic evening at a little league game.

Seems appropriate for this stage of our lives!

Happy Knitting.

Friday Moment

Bags of gorgeous alpaca fleece that will soon be yarn!!!!

 We should have all of the yarn by our farm day in September.

My Terra shawl is off the needles and is blocking.

Knitted with hand dyed alpaca yarn. Will be for sale in the farm store!

What to knit next???

Have a good weekend.

Saying Goodbye to A Big Grey Dog...A Sad Day

(photo taken by Andee)

It's a sad day around here. My sister Andee had to say goodbye to her first baby.

Harley Dude, rest in peace. We'll miss you very, very, very much.

You lived a very long, good life. Got years beyond what you should because

of the love and care your mom gave you. I remember driving to Delaware with Andee and Dalton when you were a baby to pick you up. You were the cutest puppy I had ever seen.

You kept Andee company when she was single and living at the beach,

at "Other" MomMom's house, Adams Street when Sean came into our lives...then Brady...then your new house...then Shea.

You protected Andee and Brady the night those crazy police scared the daylights out of all of us.

You swam like a maniac. You barked at everything. You killed numerous skunks, groundhogs

and other critters. You were kind, gentle and patient with your human brothers.

You could get under your blanket on your bed to the point where not a bit of you was seen except maybe your nose. You were a good dog. One that can never be replaced.

I am so glad that you spent your last good days swimming in the pool and

barking at everyone and that your suffering was short and over quickly.

 We'll miss you Harley Dude.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Joining in today with Ashley for the Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Red

Chase and the red wagon

White

White roving ready to be spun and dyed by Liz

 

 

Blue

Deep blue summer night sky

Stars

Somewhere in that spot light is my favorite "star", Tim McGraw.

I'll say it again (for the gazillionth time...he held my hand at that concert)

His black hat is looking down in the middle of the light, behind the guy in the gray shirt.

Ok....I know this is a stretch, but he's in there :)

Sparkles

Excited to be chosen for next week's prompts!

Here they are for next week:

Relaxing

Inspiring Person

Written Words

Memories

Best Friend

Have a great Sunday!

Happy 4th From the Farm!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!

Summer Knitting- Yarn Along

Happy Wednesday

I'm still working on my Terra Shawl.

I really like this project and I'm now on to the lace edge.

A joy to work on. I have been a getting a few rows in outside every morning

this week. My husband has the week off, so we have been enjoying

a morning cup of coffee outside. I love summer!!!!

I finished reading, Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

I loved that book. I didn't want to put it down. It's real, sad, funny, romantic and also uplifting in

a way. I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

The author has a few other books, so I'm interested in checking those out as well.

Have any of you ever read her books?

I don't have a book started right now, but my mom had read this one

a few years ago and gave it to me. 

The Weight of Silence. We'll see. Not sure....

Joining up with Ginny again this week for the yarn along.

Happy Knitting!

OMG!!!

Want to know who touched this guy's hand??? 

Wait, let me ask that again. 

Want to know who held this guy's hand as he walked a few steps?????

Yup...It's me!!!!!

OMG. Amazing night. Fabulous concert and in the right place at the right time

to touch his hand with my husband standing right next to me cheering me on!

Ahhhhhh......