Things are Buzzing

We had the oddest occurrence happen in our yard this week.  We had a swarm of bees take up residence in the tree above our driveway.  It is really rare for this to occur in the Fall.  It normally happens in the Spring when there is more than one queen, so a group leaves with the second queen to find a new hive.  These bees decided to form an open-aired hive on our tree.  It would not have ended well for them when Winter came.  Fortunately, I remembered this happening in our neighborhood a couple of years ago.  They had a bee keeper come pick up the swarm.  I called the same man and he came straight out to get them.  He's going to try to keep them alive through the Winter. 

A Fishie Finish

I listen better when my hands are busy, so I try to have a quilt I can hand bind during General Conference.  This one went quickly.  I love the fishes!

A Quick Note

 Just a quick check in to let you know our cats are as mischievous as ever.  Make yourself at home, Stella.

Fishies

I finally got my act together and pieced together the fish quilt top from last year's do.Good Stitches.  Later is better than never.  It was fun randomly deciding placement and background shades of blue.

Piecing Things Together Late

I completed my July and August do.Good Stitches blocks...in September.  The struggle is real.  I don't get any sewing done during the summer and then life got super busy in a different way as soon as school was back in session.  My kiddos are living their best life and I'm their ride.  

The first block a very large 16.5". It needed to be blues and greens in the 9 patches and gray for the background.

The 2 August blocks were any combination of the primary colors with one half solid and the other half parented.  Gratefully, both blocks came together quickly. 

Finally!

 The crew showed up on Monday to work on the cabinets, but they didn't have enough time reserved.  They thought they were only fixing one of the doors, so they went through the things that still needed to be done and then left.  I was bummed.  Yet another delay...

Gratefully, they came back later that week and finished the cabinets.  It's a Christmas miracle in September!  It took almost 11 months, but the cabinets are finally done in our kitchen.  Sadly, they left quite a bit of stuff in the garage, so it's still not usable.  I have to try to get a hold of the company to come get all the stuff.  Hopefully that won't take another 11 months.  I'm tempted just to rent a dumpster and get rid of it myself.

Here's the before and after:

It's a major improvement from the 90s built-in desk.

Two More

I went to 2 more new temples when I was in Utah.  Red Cliff Temple is in St. George and is about ready for the open house.  We stopped on our way up to Cedar City, and then on our way down we stopped at the Cedar City Temple.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I loved the stained glass. 

These are temples #85 and #86 for our family. 

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Up by Brian Head, Utah is Cedar Breaks National Monument.  It's a small national park with beautiful rock formations.  You can drive the main highway through the park and stop at 4 lookout points.  We also chose to do one of the easier hikes.  

Pictures don't do it justice.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  The weather was also perfection.  It's about 10,000 feet above sea level depending where you are in the park, so it's very temperate.  Low 70s and sunny.  It was glorious after being a sweaty mess in Kansas heat and humidity.  I definitely felt the elevation though, because I live at about 900 feet elevation.  

The hike had a cool pond, and there was a guy painting it.  I swear it wasn't that long, but I think I may have almost killed off a friend or two on the hike.  They claim it was 5 miles instead of the 2.  In fairness I thought it said 1 mile, but uh we learned it was longer when we were already on it.  It had some steep sections, but it was so pretty and the weather was great.  I totally got sun burnt. 

We celebrated the hike by going to the pizzeria that is a well known establishment in Bryant Head.  The meatball calzone was massive!  We got the smaller size and still split it in half.  So yummy!  We also had fun watching sheep cross the road.  Everything about this area is so beautiful and fun.