Welcome Fall!

Yes, I am still here.  Have you seen the fun fall giveaways?  One is here at Fall Into Fall, they have a ton of giveaways to enter.  It starts today and there's some great stuff out there.  The other one is Fall-O-Ween and I have the button at top right on my blog page.  It links to the list of designers who are participating.  It started on Monday and they are doing a free project pattern each day.  So far they are really nice patterns.   Visit each designer and leave a comment on their blog on the day they present their pattern.  At the end if you have commented on all of their blogs you will be entered to win some really nice prizes.  It would be great to win the prizes at the end, but so far the free patterns are worth the visit!

I promised some pictures of our trip to the North Rim so here goes:

Here we are at the campground at the North Rim.  It is a very pretty campground, very quiet, nice paved roads, but no hook-ups.  Water is nearby and they have restrooms throughout the campground and a laundry/shower facility at the entrance.  There is also the gift shop/store at the entrance, too. 

This is Angels Window, that is the Colorado river winding through the view in the rock.  We did some hiking on the trails.  Here the trail goes over the opening to a viewpoint, you can see the rails along the sides of the trail.  

There were some great views into the canyons along the trails.  At night, there were tons of stars and the moon was bright.

There were lots of tiny, tiny flowers blooming.

There were Kaibab squirrels, they are only found on the Kaibab plateau at the North Rim.  These little guys have dark bodies, tufted ears and white tails.  They were in the campground.

Ground squirrels were everywhere.

We also saw lots of wild turkeys and

  some beefalo.  They are a cross between cattle and bison.

In the lodge there is a life size bronze statue of Brighty of the Grand Canyon from the book by the same name.  Brighty was a wild burro who lived in the area long ago.  Marguerite Henry wrote the children's book about him.  His spirit lives on at the North Rim. 

Our last night there we ate dinner in the Lodge dining room, watched the sunset over the canyon and walked the trail to Bright Angel point just as it was getting dark.  This is the entrance to the lodge with the moon right above it.  The only time I had a problem with the height over the canyon was on the trail to Bright Angle point, but I made my feet keep moving and the view from the point was worth it.  There were a few spots along the trail where it felt like the edges just dropped off into the canyon and it was a little scary for me but I am glad I walked it.

The day before we left for out trip my husband rode our motorcycle to Grants, NM with several of his friends who were headed to Las Vegas, NV for a few days.  DH just rode part way, then came back home.  They invited him to go on the trip but we had the vacation trip planned.  Anyway, he got home and we went out and traded our Harley for this:

It is a new Honda Goldwing.  Several years ago we traded our old Goldwing for the Harley.  DH really wanted a new Goldwing then but they didn't have what he wanted so we ended up with the Harley.  We rode it for five years but it was loud and causing hearing problems for DH plus it was a bit of a rough ride.  He decided on the way home from the last ride with his friends that is was time for something different.  He has wanted the "tweety bird" yellow since it first came out and he found one at the shop in Rio Rancho so we got it.  It is so quiet and the ride is sooooooo much more comfortable and smooth.  We have been busy riding, have about 700 miles on it already.  Can't wait to take it on a trip, maybe to see his brother who lives north of Amarillo, TX. 

Got some bad news last week, my Mom and Dad have moved into a nursing home in my hometown.  Mom has been taking care of Dad for a while now and she has gotten to the point she needs some care herself so they made the move.  So far they are getting along fine, it is just hard knowing it has come to the point they need more help.  But they are getting what they need and doing well.

As for quilting progress, I only have 14 more blocks to put together for Two Piece Puzzle.  All of the HST are made, I just have to put 16 HST together to make the star blocks.  This part is a little boring, doing the same thing over and over to make these last 14 blocks.  Once they are done, I can put them together into rows and the quilt top will really take shape.  I have the Halloween blocks finished and the top is basted and ready to quilt.  I will work on that while watching TV in the evenings.  I want to make some Trick or Treat bags to send to the grand kids so I will break up the monotony of piecing blocks with that project. 

I still have to take pictures of Theri's blocks and the Halloween quilt top.  I will try to have them for the next blog.  

Don't forget to check out the giveaways, there is some great stuff there!