I'm still buried in boxes (no new kitchen yet!) but I couldn't let any more time go by without finishing my coverage of fun and exciting things from our Oregon trip.
My sister's adorable little boy turned 1 during our stay, so Tricia put together a fabulous party, Very Hungry Caterpillar style. I thought this centerpiece was so incredibly clever - such a perfectly appropriate concept, and we all got to munch on the goodies during dinner. Because, after all, we were all Very Hungry too.
She had purchased some Very Hungry fabric and just cut the borders off separately, then sewed the strips together to create the long table runner. So cute, especially when paired with the red and white tablecloth.
Tricia hung some wooden "beads" from her chandelier for fun,
and Hazel had a very hard time keeping her fingers away from the darling birthday cake. The other cousins did too - that caterpillar was the recipient of a lot of attention and petting by many curious little fingers!
I think Tricia formed the leaf and the caterpillar from marzipan, but it may have been fondant too - I'm not sure.
Because there were so many of us at the party that day, Tricia also made these cute little cupcakes out of gumdrops and used mini chocolate chips for the feet.
I love how the leaf cupcakes turned out too - good enough to eat a hole through...okay, more than that - good enough to eat the whole thing!
Make a wish, Baby Niko! He didn't really know quite what to do, but everyone else did!
Tricia even had these fantastic gift totes for all the young ones. She thinks of everything!
And here we have my brother Jeff and Niko's big sister demonstrating the many fun ways one can wear a party hat. Sorry if this embarrasses you, brother dear, but I just had to put this one in! At least I didn't post the one with you looking all cross-eyed and goofy faced. :-) Uncle Jeff is always such a good sport.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, here are some photos of the rest of our very fun day with my friend Cynthia and her two girls.
Grandpa helped everyone refine the art of roasting hotdogs over a fire. See those great hotdog sticks? He made them with steel rods and drilled a hole in a wooden dowel for the handle. No more hotdogs or marshmallows slipping off into the fire, and it's built for two!
Dad built the firepit too, out of super thick slabs of metal. One of the perks of being a metal sculptor! (see link to his site in my sidebar)
We were "camping" next to a big lodge that my dad, with the help of many others, is building from timber from the farm property.
It's a work in progress, but isn't the staircase incredibly cool? They placed a giant fir tree trunk in the middle of the lodge, then secured huge slabs of fir to the trunk for the treads and used branches for the the stair rails.
The branches are also secured from the loft floor to the ceiling as an inventive railing "wall." I love that staircase - so incredibly organic and unique.
This lodge is not zoned for or intended as a permanent dwelling, but it sure is a great place for summer gatherings! Dad's been so busy with other things that he's never really finished the lodge (yes, I inherited my tendency to finish things about 80% to 90%, then run off to another exciting project, from him) but hopefully someday the interior will be finished enough to really have big family get-togethers there.
Because, after all, where else are the kids going to be able to open a big rough-hewn door with an axe as the door handle? (Not to worry, the axe is very deeply and safely embedded in the wood!)
Or, for that matter, where are they going to be able to pull a handcart, crafted after the ones that the real-life pioneers pulled from Missouri to Utah and beyond, searching for a better life?
I really like this handcart, partly because it's so much fun for the kids, but also because it reminds me of all the hardships and sacrifices people made so long ago to settle the West. In our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons), every July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day to commemorate the incredibly difficult crossing of the plains that early members of the church endured to escape religious persecution and eventually settle in Utah and other areas. It was a trek that cost many lives and required great sacrifice, both physically and materially, but they were determined and blessed to finally establish communities far from the misinformed and often violent mobs that ultimately drove them from the east coast to the west. Fortunately that kind of opposition doesn't exist today, but we still pause to remember the rich heritage of faith, hard work, and endurance that the early pioneer saints exhibited by celebrating Pioneer Day. Hence the handcart.
Can you imagine pulling all your earthly possessions over thousands of miles, trekking through the Rocky Mountains (before any roads were built) with hardly any food and not even any shoes because they wore out miles and miles before? Some pioneers were so poor that this was their only choice. Some were caught in early snowstorms and it was truly miraculous that any of them survived at all. There are so many incredible accounts of those early pioneers that it just makes my jaw drop sometimes. I don't think I would have made a very good pioneer. I'm way too soft and spoiled...and how on earth would I be able to fit my printing press and art supplies into a handcart? :-)
Here's Hazel in a rare stationary pose, taking a second to snuggle with mommy in front of the fire.
Cynthia needed a baby fix, so Hazel obliged for a few moments by snuggling with Cynthia too. Actually Hazel warmed up to Cynthia immediately, which doesn't always happen with people Hazel first meets. What's not to love about Cynthia? She's great. One of my dearest friends when we were living in Hawaii at the same time, and now she lives in Oregon and I'm clear across the country. Sheesh.
Hazel discovered the olive-on-the-finger trick that day, and she got a huge kick out of feeding herself (and Hyrum) as many olives as Mommy would allow before Mommy got nervous about what sort of diapers an overdose of olives might create. TMI?
At the end of the day, it was time to extinguish the fire with the water hose, a task that Hyrum took great pride in.
It's a big job to be the Family Fireman, you know.
We couldn't let Cynthia and the girls go home without a tour of Dad's sculpture gallery, so we all swarmed into the studio for a look-see.
Hazel's favorites were the huge gongs hanging up outside. They make very fabulous sound vibrations when they're struck with the leather-covered mallet. She could have done that all night, but since I'm selfish and valued my hearing (and hers!) I finally pulled her away. I just love the incredible waves of light and shadow that are created in a flat piece of metal by means of using a handheld grinder. My dad is a master at creating those curvy shapes. I've tried it = DEFINITELY much harder than it looks!
So there you have it, folks! Thus ends the story of our trip to Oregon, and after 2+ hours of putting this post together (I told you my internet was slow, although in the middle of the night it's faster than the daytime, thank goodness) it's time to bid adieu (did I spell that right?). The next post will have pics of our "new" old(ish) house, I promise. Nighty-night!