On May 3, 2026 we attended an Eagle Court of Honor for four Scouts from our troop: Bryan, Spencer, Logan, and Brandon. All Eagle Courts of Honor are special, but this one was particularly meaningful for me. I was there when each boy joined our troop for the first time. I watched all four progress through all seven ranks and I sat on at least one Board of Review for each of them. I taught them skills as a merit badge counselor and camped with them. And, perhaps most significantly, Steve and I planned the 2021 COVID-replacement summer camp at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, which all four loved so much that they chose that location for their Eagle ceremony.
As if this Court of Honor weren't already so meaningful, the new Eagles chose Trevor to be the Master of Ceremonies. Trevor was the Senior Patrol Leader when three of the four joined the troop, so from the beginning they saw him as a role model. Trevor is 2 years older than Bryan, Spencer, and Logan, and 3 years older than Brandon, so it's no surprise that they relied on him for guidance during their paths to Eagle. And it was a huge compliment that they selected him as MC.
The whole day was full of Proud Mom moments, but none so much as when Logan and Bryan each named Trevor as a mentor and awarded him a mentor pin. And then I had a Proud Wife moment, when Logan and Spencer each named Steve as a mentor! What a day. Huge congrats to Bryan, Spencer, Logan, and Brandon for their accomplishment. We're all so proud of you.
In November 2025, my mom, sister, niece, and I took a girls' trip to Disneyland. We spent four days in the parks. We rode all our favorite rides multiple times, but instead of racing from ride to ride like we might on a shorter visit, we took our time. We listened to live music, watched the shows, and took a close look at all of the holiday decorations. I got into pin trading, something Trevor had done when he was young. Mom, Kari, and I got matching holiday sweatshirts. Twelve-year old Allison thought that was cringe. Her loss. Kari introduced me to the concept of collectible popcorn buckets and bought lots of snacks for us to enjoy. One of the many highlights of the trip was taking the 70th Anniversary Holiday Tour, which was so much fun and a whole different way to experience Disneyland. It was a fantastic trip.
When choosing photos for my layout, my main priority was including photos of us. I was really glad that our tour guide offered to take a picture of the four of us together - it ended up being the only one we got. The other group shots are all trios. I mixed the people pictures with photos showing the holiday and 70th anniversary decorations. It rained one of the days we were there, so I made sure to include one of those pictures too. The people in the background are carrying umbrellas and wearing ponchos; we're standing in the rain enjoying Dole Whips. I'm so glad to have this layout in the album. It's full of happy memories.
As you can see on the graphic, Jessica taught us how to make different kinds of flowers. I went my own direction and made a pumpkin, which is the official state fruit of New Hampshire. She used a loop start to begin her embroidery, which is something I've never done before. I love taking classes, not only for the inspiration but for those little tips that I otherwise wouldn't have known. Affiliate links below.
Cut your watercolor paper down to the desired size. Mine is 5" square. Add multiple bands of color to the paper. I used green, yellow, and orange and blended them a bit.
When the paint is dry, use a pencil to draw the design you want as lightly as possible. Poke holes along the pencil lines (always poking from the front) with the paper piercer. Then use embroidery floss to backstitch the design.
Then fill in the pumpkin and stem with watercolor.
This is a fun and easy project that can easily be adapted to practically any design. It's a great way to introduce kids to embroidery. Give it a try!
Last year, I took six classes during The Pigeon Letters Summer Creative Retreat. (This one was my favorite. Or maybe this one.) Summer Creative Retreat is billed as the world's biggest free online art event, with 60 classes and over 20, 000 people attending. I really enjoyed it last year and was eager to participate again. Unfortunately, I didn't get home from Idaho until this year's Summer Creative Retreat was half over, and then I had to do all those annoying things like laundry, groceries, bills, and catching up with work that come after a trip. I did manage to watch four of the classes on replay before the event ended and I crafted along with two of them.
The first was Inspiration Treasure Hunt: A Playful Process for Creating Art, by Mel Rye.
Mel began by asking us to go on an Inspiration Treasure Hunt to find random objects on our workspace. We looked carefully at the items we found to discover shapes and textures. For example, a simple pencil has a round eraser that might inspire dots, a metal ferrule with vertical lines, and a wavy pattern where the pencil was sharpened.
We used the shapes we found to doodle the shapes they inspired onto plain paper. It was fascinating how many different patterns I was able to make using found items sitting on my desk. I did most of my doodles with a ballpoint pen, then switched to a Sharpie in order to get darker shapes for contrast. After creating a bunch of patterns, we cut those apart and arranged them on a colorful background. As you can see in the graphic above, Mel made abstract designs. I made fruit. The watermelon, pear, and apple each use three different patterns and the pineapple has two, so there are 11 different doodles represented below.
This was a really fun activity and a great way to stretch creatively. It's something you could do anywhere, since it uses so few materials. Such a fun class!
When I was in Idaho for Banana Ball, Kari suggested lunch at Fanci Freez. Fanci Freez been around since 1947 and has won quite a few "Best of Boise" awards. I happily agreed. Everything on their menu looked pretty good, but when I travel I tend to order things you can't get anywhere else, particularly if they're significant to the area. I have never seen a Huckleberry Cheeseburger before and huckleberries are Idaho's state fruit, so that's what I ordered. Doesn't it look amazing?!
The Huckleberry Cheeseburger features a burger patty with fresh huckleberry spread, lettuce, onion, and blue cheese on a corn-dusted bun. I paired it with a huckleberry milkshake. When in Idaho, always get the huckleberry!
After we ordered our food, I intended to take pictures, read the plaques on the wall, etc. but I was immediately distracted by crayons and a stack of coloring pages. I sat down and started coloring. Our food was ready really quickly - usually a good thing, but I had barely made any progress coloring! I reluctantly set my coloring page aside. We ate our food and it was SO GOOD. I will definitely be requesting Fanci Freez and the Huckleberry Cheeseburger next time I visit.
Back at Kari's house, I finished coloring while the rest of the family played games.
I colored the whole page with the crayons at the restaurant and the Twistables that Kari had. Her tabletop is textured, so I got a cool effect coloring the title and background.
It turns out that this coloring page wasn't just something fun to entertain kids and craft bloggers waiting for their food; Fanci Freez is running a 79th anniversary coloring contest. I can't enter since my page is here with me in California and not turned in at their Meridian location, which is fine since I don't know that the contest is for 54-year olds.
Trevor and I flew to Boise, Idaho two weeks ago to visit my mom and my sister's family. We chose the timeframe we did for a very special reason: we were there to attend a Banana Ball game. I've been wanting to go for years, so it was so exciting that it was finally going to happen. After we weren't chosen during the lottery for tickets for the game in Sacramento, my sister (Kari) and brother-in-law (Brian) worked hard to secure tickets for us in Boise. I am so grateful!
If you're not familiar with Banana Ball, it's a highly entertaining, fast-paced version of baseball with rules designed to maximize the action. The antics of Banana Ball lead to comparisons with the Harlem Globetrotters, although there are key differences. Banana Ball games are not scripted and all six teams within the league compete to win, whereas the Globetrotters always play the same opponent and (nearly) always win.
This was the first time that Banana Ball came to Idaho. The people of Boise, particularly at the host venue of Boise State, were really excited.
In the days before we flew, I was really nervous that the game was going to be canceled or postponed. Not only was the temperature in Boise topping 100°F, but the air quality was absolutely horrible, with numbers reaching well into the Hazardous level. Fortunately, the air quality improved significantly before the game. It was still smoky (and HOT) but not dangerously so. Hurray!
The Party Animals' mascot is named Pharty. He has quite a backstory.
Our group was seated in three different areas. Kari and I were together.
Here is Trevor with my mom. And Brian with Timothy and Allison.
We arrived in plenty of time for the pre-game festivities.
We weren't allowed to bring water into the stadium (100°+) and the lines to buy water were outrageous. Brian stood in line to get waters for all of us. He and Allison came by to deliver them.
While our seats were good for watching the game and the antics, they were pretty terrible for photography. All my pictures are through a net and into the sun. You can barely make out the Boise Bronco on the field toward the back.
During the pre-game (and throughout the game) there was so much going on. It was hard to know where to look. The guy in the blue morph suit was slowly making his way toward the pitcher while teams of dancers were performing and players were in the crowds giving away stuff.
The music is constant. Literally. Songs change every 10-30 seconds and there is no break between them. Songs play throughout the game, which is not a thing in standard baseball. There's always somebody dancing somewhere.
Because the Boise games were played at a football stadium and not a baseball stadium, there were some quirks that were a lot of fun. One example: there were no dugouts, so all the players were just right there.
To our left, a make-shift bullpen.
It was a HUGE relief when the sun finally dipped enough to be partially blocked by the stadium. It was so hot and it made a big difference not to be in direct sun.
The friends of Brian who were sitting with Kari and me left with 30 minutes on the clock to avoid the crush of 36,000 people. Timothy, Allison, and Brian took their seats.
Kari, Mom, Trevor, and I left with 15 minutes remaining so that we too could get ahead of the masses.
The Party Animals ended up winning the game 4-1. Yea!
Watching Banana Ball in person is a fantastic experience, but so is watching it on TV. I was really happy to see the game on YouTube. It was great fun to watch the things I saw from a better angle... and even more fun to see the things I completely missed!
I am so glad to have been to a Banana Ball game. I would happily go again, although ideally on a much cooler day and in real seats instead of bleachers. I'd especially like to see the original team, the Savannah Bananas, play. Huge thanks to Kari and Brian for everything they did for me to experience this bucket-list item!
Like my first and second quilts, this quilt was made entirely with donated fabrics. The challenge of quilting with donated fabrics is that we rarely receive large pieces. I built this quilt around the yellow, red, and light green fabrics, but there was only enough fabric for sixteen 10" squares of those colors (4 yellow, 8 red, 4 green). Since the whole quilt needs 48 squares, I had to search through our stash to find enough coordinating colors for the other 2/3 of the quilt. I ended up using a total of 8 different fabrics, with as few as 2 squares of a color and as many as 10 squares of another. It was quite a challenge to arrange the blocks into a cohesive design with such random numbers of each color. I tried a bunch of designs before settling on this one, which has a sense of symmetry (without actually being symmetrical).
Sewing the quilt top took a fraction of the time as with my second quilt, which in turn took significantly less time than the first. Progress! I feel so much more confident sewing. Most of my corners actually match, which is a huge accomplishment for me. Binding the quilt also went much more smoothly.
As with my first two quilts, this quilt will go to someone in need via Lutheran World Relief. It is incredibly rewarding to make something that will provide some comfort and warmth to a person who is struggling through what is probably the most difficult time of their life. I love that I am part of this.
This is the tenth post in a series. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth posts before this one. Today I'll be wrapping up this series by selecting the city in Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming that I most want to visit, then listing my top 2 attractions in each location.
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The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 10: Virginia to Wyoming
It should come as no surprise - the city I most want to visit in Virginia is the capital, Richmond. It's one of the five state capitals I haven't visited yet. There are a lot of things I want to see and do in Richmond, but my top priorities are the Virginia State Capitol and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Leavenworth is a Bavarian-inspired village in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and it is the city I'd most like to visit in the Evergreen State. It looks so charming and I'm a big fan of Bavarian food. The attractions I most want to see include the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum and Blackbird Island.
The city I'd most like to visit in West Virginia is Fayetteville. It's a very small town, with approximately 2800 people. The amount of infrastructure in such a small place is surprising, until you realize it's the gateway for our newest National Park. New River Gorge National Park is the primary place I'd like to visit. Since it's right there, I would enjoy a look at BSA's Summit Bechtel Reserve.
Green Bay is the city I most want to visit in Wisconsin. It the oldest city in the state and is famous for being the smallest American city to have a major professional sports team. Green Bay is known as the Toilet Paper Capital of the World (!) and is where "splinter-free" (!!) toilet paper was invented. Sadly, there is no toilet paper related attraction in town; worse, the World's Largest Toilet Paper Roll is gone. When I visit Green Bay, I would most like to visit the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and Museum.
The city I'd most like to visit in Wyoming is Jackson. Located in the scenic valley of Jackson Hole, Jackson is the primary entry point for Grand Teton National Park, which is the attraction I most want to visit. My second priority would be the National Museum of Wildlife Art.
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That wraps up the cities I most want to visit in each of the 50 states. This was such a fun project! It introduced me to some places I wasn't previously aware of and had me really studying maps, especially for the states where I've traveled extensively already. Not every one of the 50 places I chose is a must-visit for me, but quite a few of them are. I look forward to sharing them with you in the future!
This is the ninth post in a series. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth posts before this one. Today I'll be picking the city in South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Vermont that I most want to visit, then listing my top 2 attractions in each location.
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The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 9: South Dakota to Vermont
The city I most want to visit in South Dakota is the capital, Pierre. When we traveled to the Dakotas in 2023, I went back and forth about taking a 2 hour detour (each way) in order to visit Pierre. It would have meant cutting something else from the trip and there was nothing I was willing to cut. So we didn't make it to Pierre. When we do, I want to tour the South Dakota State Capitol and visit the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center.
Memphis should be on the list of cities we've visited, not the cities we want to visit. We had everything scheduled - flights, car rental, hotels, and tickets for all of the activities we were going to do Memphis. But it was not to be. Our two-week trip ended up being a zero-day trip. Three months later, we rescheduled a portion of that failed trip, but we had to cut out Memphis because Trevor's spring break wasn't as long as winter break when the trip should have happened. All that to say, Memphis is the city I most want to visit in Tennessee. When I go, I will be visiting all the major attractions, but the two I'm most excited about are the National Civil Rights Museum and the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum.
The city I most want to visit in Texas is Houston. One of my rules is that I can only pick cities I'd never visited, beyond the airport. In 2005, we flew into Houston, got on a bus a few steps outside the terminal, and rode to Galveston where we boarded a cruise ship. The process was reversed at the end of the trip. I'm not counting that as having been to Houston (although if I'd died stepping onto the bus, my death certificate would indicate that I had indeed been to Houston). I would like to actually experience something in Houston; specifically, I would most like to see Holocaust Museum Houston and the Eternal Gandhi Museum.
The city I'd most like to visit in Utah is Moab. Billed as the "ultimate basecamp for red rock adventures," Moab is a great city to visit even for the less adventurous who want to look at red rocks, not go mountain biking on them (raising my hand). Not only is Moab beautiful in its own right, but it is where to stay to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.
This is the eighth post in a series. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh posts before this one. Today I'll be picking the city in Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina that I most want to visit, then listing my top 2 attractions in each location.
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The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 8: Oklahoma to South Carolina
Boring, Oregon was named for a person with the last name of Boring; the city motto is "The most exciting place to live!" My favorite fun fact about Boring is that its sister city is Dull, Scotland and those two joined Bland, Australia to form "The Trinity of Tedium." One of my best friends from college (Hi, Erin!) grew up in Boring. When I eventually make it there, I'll be touring the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus. The other main attraction in town is the North American Bigfoot Center, which I don't really see myself visiting. Does posing in front of every Boring sign in town count? Because I'll definitely be doing that.
The city I most want to visit in Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh. There are a lot of things I want to see and do in Pittsburgh, but topping the list is everything having to do with Mr. Rogers. I'm most excited about the Heinz History Center. Another big priority is visiting the National Aviary. It looks amazing and, as a bonus, one of my friends from when Trevor was a baby recently became their Veterinary Department Coordinator. My favorite blogger lives there too, but I don't think I'd be able to meet her.
The city I most want to visit in Rhode Island is Woonsocket. Located on the Blackstone River, Woonsocket was a major site for textile mills during the Industrial Revolution. I would love to visit the Museum of Work and Culture, which focuses on the immigrants who came to Woonsocket to work at the mills. I would also like to see the Museum of Broadcast Technology.
The city I most want to visit in South Carolina is Charleston. It is one of the oldest cities in the US and is the oldest city in South Carolina. There are a lot of things to see. My top priority is Ft. Sumpter National Historic Park. I'd also plan to take the Old Town Trolley Tour, as their tours always provide a great overview.
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Have you been to any of these cities? Are there other places to visit that you'd recommend? Let me know in the comments!
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