There's Only One Lagoon!

Our little family went to Lagoon on Saturday.  It has been a LONG time since we have been there.  Matt and I can't remember for sure, but it is somewhere around 4 or 5 years we think.  Matt's work, Roy Animal Care, had a fun Lagoon day.  They bought everyone's tickets, reserved a shady pavilion, and arranged for dinner at Lagoon. The kids were looking forward to this day with monster smiles on their faces!

 Matt surprised me with the desire to go to the Pioneer Village portion of Lagoon first.  We spent at least an hour walking around the old buildings, reading about them, going inside and musing at how frugal the pioneers lived and how completely spoiled rotten we are today - okay, so that was what I was thinking! The girls were just happy to be there, but I know Kelsey was thinking "When do we get to go on some rides?" but held her tongue like the wonderful daughter that she is!
Here are Kelsey and Kendal next to the sign that read "BIGLER CABIN."  Jacob Bigler is their grandfather, with many greats added to that.  Jacob Bigler is one of Matt's mother's grandfathers,  I am not sure how many generations back, but not many.  He settled in Sanpete County and was an early Utah pioneer.  We should have taken a picture of them in front of the cabin, but the sign is cool too.  You can see the side of the cabin in the picture.  I think it is pretty great that the kids could touch the logs that used to keep their many great grandfather's home and family warm.  Amazing!

We had to have some ice cream while in Pioneer Village.  This is the only picture that proves Kenna was there - the stroller.  I was so worried about her being in the heat all day and the business and nasty germ invested rides and people (can you tell I LOVE crowds?) but she did wonderful.  Truly wonderful.

I didn't get the chance to snap many pictures - we were going going going all day, plus, a picture of a roller coaster ride with half of Davis County on it doesn't appeal to me, but I had to get this shot.  I have one similar to it taken of myself.  I was around 7 years old, just like Kendal, and I rode these exact cars with my brother while my mom took our picture.  I remember the track being a WHOLE lot longer, and not nearly as shady (they have gratefully planted so many trees!), but it is the same ride.  I think my car was red too!

Here is a shot of the folks Matt works with everyday and their families at our pavilion eating dinner.  It really was an enjoyable time and I got to see people that Matt sees everyday, but I only get to see at the Christmas Party!  There are 5 doctors, including Matt, that work at the two veterinary clinics, plus so many receptionists, technicians, and others that work there.  They are some really great people.

Kelsey had a good time with us as a family, but she enjoyed a few hours of playing on some of the scarier rides with the big girls, meaning Macie and her older sister.  They had a great time together.  We had a super fantastic time, but I must admit that Lagoon is not my favorite place to spend a Saturday - so many people!  I am becoming a hermit I think, although I can not deny that I LOVED my rides on the all the roller coasters!

Kenna's civil war infant clothing

We had a civil war event this past weekend at This is the Place Heritage Park.  That meant that sweet baby Kenna needed something period correct to wear.  I worked on her clothing for a few days, as well as my own clothing.  I took apart the dress I made when I was pregnant and remade it smaller so I can use it now.  It worked out pretty good, but not completely perfect.  Anyway, Kenna's clothing was so fun to make!  I  love how hers turned out.

Isn't she just the sweetest little thing you have ever seen?  There is something so beautiful, pure, and sweet about her new white 1860s clothing.  Above is her chemise and drawers.  I used the chemise pattern Amy has as a free printable on her blog, A Day in 1862.  I did make it a little longer, and used a tie instead of a button for the front closure, but I love using Amy's patterns.  I kind of just made up the drawers.  They are supposed to be just two tubes of fabric that go around the legs and connect at the top, but I needed something more to hide that darn modern diaper.  I just grabbed a pair of Kenna's modern pants and made a horrible little pattern from them that worked out okay. 

These two pictures here show the back and front of the strapped petticoat I made her.  I just copied the one I had made for Emmitt and made it smaller to fit her.  I think it turned out so cute as well.  She really should have more than one petticoat, but I am calling this good - we only have one more event this year.  I did quilt the top and straps of it and I love the look it gives the petticoat.

I completely forgot that her toenails were painted!  Oh dear!  Since it is August, I left her barefoot.  I thought stockings and shoes were a little over the top for this time of year.  Since Kenna only wears half of of all of this normally with summertime, I figured shoes were just silly. Plus, I was running out of time!

I made her a little dress in an afternoon.  I initially was going to make her dress out of a cute reproduction pink fabric.  My friend Amanda came over and I showed her the chemise and petticoat.  She told me how much she loved them and how she was looking forward to the little white dress I was going to make her, as she didn't know I had the pink one cut out already.  Then my neighbor Debbie came over and ooohed and aaahed over the petticoat and asked if the normal daily dresses for newborns in the mid 1800s were white.  I knew that some were, but I so wanted to use that cute cute pink fabric!  So then I did some research.  I read a few things I had printed off the internet awhile ago.  All of the sources said that the most common color for newborn and infants clothing was white.  My mind has a hard time wrapping around that little tidbit of information.  I have a hard time keeping the 2 good white shirts of my girls clean with modern amenities, how in the world did the ladies of 1860 keep an all white baby wardrobe clean?  They say they were easy to wash and keep white, I guess I will believe them, but I do know that Kelsey got a wonderful stain this weekend on her white pinafore that is going to be a bugger to get out!
Anyway, I put the pink fabric away, although it is already cut out, and make Kenna a white dress.  I still think I am going to make that pink one up anyway!

I printed off a cute little bonnet pattern from Sarah at Romantic History to make for Kenna.  I thought I printed out the correct ratio, but I found out Thursday afternoon that I didn't.  Now Kendal's little baby doll has a darling white bonnet!  Sweet Kenna was bonnetless this weekend, bad bad bad mom!

I had no trouble finding someone to hold Kenna while I was chasing around my other kids.  Actually, my other kids just pretty much fended for themselves.  Kelsey of course was a wonderful big sister and helped so much.  Kendal loved the schoolhouse, so she spent alot of time there.  At the end of the day, the school mistress came over to meet me and told me how much she loved spending time with Kendal.  I felt a bit badly about that, but she seemed pretty sincere and nice about it, and Kendal had a great day.
This is Caleb and Kenna, and then Austin, Emmitt, and Kelsey in the background.  I love this picture for some reason.  Love it.  Even though this post is about Kenna's clothing, notice that Emmitt got to upgrade to britches this year!  No more dresses for my big potty trained boy!  As we were getting ready that morning he said "Mom, I need my petticoats and here is my bonnet."  I told him he was a big boy now and got to wear pants like the soldiers.  He decided that was going to be alright!
Caleb is smitten with Kenna and has been since she was born, so he was more than willing to love on her a bit, and Bill with artillery enjoyed loving on her too.  The sweet park employee that is stationed at the house we were camped at had a few hours with her as well.  She sat on the front porch and just rocked her as she took a nice long nap.  

Kenna is growing so quickly, I am not sure if her clothing will fit her for the next event, the Heber Valley Civil War and Living History Weekend in September.  I sure hope so!  I will be pretty busy and not too excited if I have to make her another set of period clothing!

I had to get one picture of Kenna and I - excuse the cheesy smile and the super duper center part of my hair.  That is the way they wore it, but it is sort of extreme for our modern eyes!  I did ditch my hat by this time of the day as well!

civil war baby quilt for Anne

 I finally sent off a sweet little civil war baby quilt I made for Sarah Jane who authors a blog I love to read, Romantic History.  Sarah recently had a baby girl she named Anne.  Sarah and her family are civil war reenactors as well as a few other fun time periods.  I enjoy reading her blog for civil war clothing help, but also just because she has a wonderful way with words and the pictures she paints in your mind with her words are beautiful.  The quilt label on the back of the quilt I made reads "Made for sweet baby Anne, Summer 1862 (plus 150 years), By Mrs R Crane, Utah Territory."

 Here is my sweet baby Kenna posing on sweet baby Anne's quilt!  It is made of 100% cotton civil war reproduction fabric scraps from other civil war quilts and projects I have made.  I love love love scrappy quilts, and this was a great excuse to make one!  I put in large hand quilting stitches with large cotton thread and used 100% cotton batting.  I tried to be as period correct as possible.  A common way to bind a quilt in the mid 1800s was to pull the back to the front, fold it over, and stitch it down.  I bound it that way, but my binding turned out a bit wider than those of the amazing ladies of the 1800s!

This is the quilt I saw and used as my inspiration for Anne's quilt.  It is from a Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine from July/August 2009.  It  is called Scrap Sampler Set in Bars, measures 75" by 77" and was made in 1875 in Pennsylvania.  

County Fair

 It has been the county fair this past week.  What a super time for a hometown crew!  Kelsey has been pretty busy this summer with various 4H camps.  During a 3 day sewing camp, she made this super cute dress.  She picked out the fabric which is a purple and pink peace sign print!  There was a 4H fashion show that she was asked to participate in during the fair fun.  She wasn't too sure about 'modeling', but she had a fun time.

 Emmitt planted every pea seed this year, and Kendal was my best pea patch weeder, so they were able to enter peas into the fair.  Since they are both under 8 years old, they are not old enough to truly be considered 4H members, so they received 'cloverbud' ribbons and one dollar and thought it was AWESOME!  Kelsey planted all the beets and was the beet weeder this year, so she entered beets as well and won a blue ribbon and three dollars.  Actually, Kelsey entered a few things she made, including her cute pink quilt, and ended up with $33 and 6 or 7 blue ribbons. 

Her dress won a purple ribbon and gets to go to the State Fair.  She thought that was awesome!

Here are just a few pictures of some of the quilts I liked.  This star quilt was made my Carolyn Owens and I really like the colors and the pattern - so my style!

This is the quilt I made for my mother in law.  It was apparently too long, because they folded up the bottom 18 inches or so.  This is the quilt that represents the grandkids - 15 flowers for the granddaughters and 4 blue birds for the grandsons.

This pretty quilt was made by my friend Deonn Stott.  The pattern won a really fun AccuQuilt barn quilt contest.  I love the colors, and of course it was machine quilted beautifully by Deonn.

This is another one of mine.  I completed it last year, and I like how it turned out.  It was a fun one, mostly because my neighbor Debbie worked on it with me as well.

 I loved the colors and pattern of this one as well, made by Carol Glissmeyer.  So much work with all that applique!

My friend Kami Williams made this one.  If it looks familiar, it is because the blocks from my quilt above are the same blocks in Kami's quilt.  It was a block of the month project at American Quilting and she made the real project while Debbie and I made up our own project!

Last one!  My friend Tamara Ellis made this one and I just like it.  So darn stinking cute!

 We peeked into the Junior Livestock Auction while they were doing the sheep.  That was pretty fun to watch and the kids loved it as well.  It is funny how many people we knew there!  I always love the fair, and this year it was great as usual!