Bear Lake 2009

This past weekend was my families annual Bear Lake camping trip. This trip consists of 4 generations of my family camping out together. Thanks to my dear daughter-in-law Emily, I took these pictures off from her facebook. Thanks Em! This first picture is my oldest son and his son Lincoln. It was Linc's first camping trip, he was a trooper and seemed to have a great time. I love this picture!

Here is sweet Lincoln again sitting in the froggy pool early in the morning.

Silly Kaitlyn playing cards with Connor... I'm sure there were a few other people playing cards but I don't remember who it was... and you can't see them in the picture.

This is my oldest daughter's darling daughter September. You can't tell by this picture but she is a sweet little redhead girl. She was pretty good at keeping the hat on her head to protect her from sunburn. She pretty shy too, so I wonder if she was purposely hiding.

My oldest daughter family had already left when we took this picture. But this is the rest of us... plus my Mom and my cousin's son Connor. We were all happy to have him stay with us for the weekend.
Most of the trip consists of relaxing in and by the water. We also usually have some art/craft project to do. This year we brought colored t-shirts and bleach and had a fun time making unique shirts. You can see in the picture that Mom, Nickolas and Connor are wearing theirs.

More Fairy Updates

Here are some updates to the latest fairy that I have been working on. Seems like I have been working on her FOREVER! I'm ready to be done with her. After much fussing I think I finally got her hair styled OK... I always knew that I wanted her to be brunette, and I was always thinking of a shorter style, but it ended up being pigtails.

Here you can see her top. I was tempted to leave her bare breasted, because I worked hard on them and I thought she had a rather nice pair. But in the end I just could not do it. In fact I still think she needs a bit more to her costume, I just don't know what it is.

Rear view... yep baby has some junk in her trunk. Again I worked hard to give her a nice round fanny... I had a hard time covering it up :)

Another view that shows her body art, and different angle of her face.

Last pic is a full front view. I have drilled the holes in her back and I"m working on her wings. They are almost finished. So my questions are... Does she need more? More what? Hmmm this is where you can take it too far and ruin the piece or not take it far enough and leave it with an unfinished feeling. I think I will leave the base just black like it is. Her head is a bit big for her body so I'm leary to add anything more to her there. But maybe something else. All suggestions are appreciated.

Our Gidget

Yesterday was a sad day when I had to say good-bye to our family dog, Gidget. She had been a part of the Metcalf clan for about 13 years, I don't think my youngest daughter remembers life without her. Our oldest daughter had "found" her on the way home from school and begged to be able to keep her. She was so small she could not even get up the stairs of our house. For me it was not love at first sight. I knew she would get big and having a dog was a big deal for our small home. I wish I had more pictures of her when she was that small... but that was before we owned digital camera's so all I have are the hard copies. Maybe one day I will scan them into the computer.

My children quickly fell in love with Gidget, and she and her ever shedding fur became a permanent fixture in our home. She was the best running partner when I ran the trails of the mountains close to our home. Never venturing too far from me... keeping a good pace.
She was a smart dog... many times I would find big bags of dog bones in the back yard, I'd ask my husband why he left the entire bag in the yard after he bought them. He would say... he never purchased them. One day our neighbor came over to explain that Gidget had been escaping our back yard... going into his garage when it was open and stealing the bag of dog bones! What a crazy dog!

Kaitlyn and Gidget

I was hoping that she could make it through the summer, but it became painfully clear that this was not going to happen. It was evident the last few weeks we had her that her ability to move was fading. The stairs to get to the yard were too much for her. I feared she would fall when we were not around and be hurt. Gidget always seemed happier in the winter. She would roll in the snow and chase it when we snow blowed... summer was not her season, too hot with her big black coat.
Bill and I drove her to the vets... he had us lay her under a tree by the office. He didn't want her scared, and Bill and I agreed. She laid her head on my lap and slowly feel to sleep. After she was gone, we covered her with a blanket. I will miss her so much.
We had fireworks last night in the neighborhood, our city's founders day. Gidget hated fireworks. It was weird to not have her barking and whining, I'm sure at the next thunderstorm I will feel the same, she hated them too.

She will be missed