Wintery Knitting

Papa has gone home to Spokane and that leaves Gramma here with Piper.  We're having a great time, although this East coast weather leaves much to be desired.  More on that later.  But I'm sure you're as interested in Piper as I am.  😍  Well...maybe not as interested as I am but please bear with me, I only have five more days with this little girl before I, too, have to fly away home.  So, here we go!

Sleepy Piper on the car ride home the other day.

I adore this little girl.

We arrived in an ice storm.  Papa left Sunday in an ice storm. Ours was the last flight in when we arrived last week.  His was one of the last flights out when he left on Sunday.  What is it with this weather?  Because guess what's happening again. Right now?  An ice storm.  Freezing rain is coating the roads again.

These were the trees outside my bedroom window Monday morning when I woke up.  That's ice on them. Shiny, pretty, ice.

Pretty but cold and icy.

Blue sky for one day before the rain came back.

So, Miss Piper and I are knitting together.  (How do you like her Minnie Mouse slippers we brought to her?). Since she was so interested in the washcloths I'm knitting...

...and she was trying her hardest to put that needle right where it was supposed to go...

....so I cast on a knit a short little scarf for her dolly on a circular needle and knit a few inches for her.  Now we knit together!  Well, maybe not REALLY knitting, but she sure is trying.

And she's so proud.

And she's so serious.

Just look at that face and at that wild hair.  I know we have a budding knitter here my friends.

And Grandma?  Well, the weather stinks and we haven't been able to go many places but this is he reason I came anyway.  To play, and knit, with my precious Piper.

Blessings,

Betsy

Piper's Socks

One and a half pairs of socks for Piper are done.  As in 3 socks.  I don't knit much, pretty much after she goes to bed or is playing with her other grandma, because it's much more fun to play with her than play with knitting needles!  Here is the first complete pair.  They are so soft, made with Willow Guppie yarn, "Atlantic" color way.  Piper loves them and has been trying them on throughout the knitting process. Each morning she wants to see what progress was made the night before.

A little hand grabbing her socks off of the table.

I tried to get a picture of her modeling the socks. Ha!  Have you ever tried to photograph a constantly moving 2 year old?  So here are the attempts to get a decent picture.

Marching in place on the sofa.

And...she's off.  Sorry I didn't get better pictures, but the socks fit and she likes them.  That's all that matters, right?

She loves her Santa hat and doesn't seem to realize that Christmas is over.  She sings "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bells" all the time.

This is Brad's Mom.  Grandma & Grandpa Krumel left to go back to Nebraska this morning.  It was really hard for them to leave and I think it gets harder each time.  At least it's harder every time for me.  Piper has had all four Grandparents here for a week.  I think she will have serious withdrawals when we all go home.  Dennis goes back to Spokane on Sunday and then it's just me here for another week.  I get her all to myself for seven whole days.  Yay!

Here I was trying to get a picture of all three of us and it didn't turn out too well.  We all get along so well.  We couldn't ask for easier in-laws.

The frozen Potomac  River.  

We did some sightseeing the other day and I'll show you some of those pictures next time.

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10

Blessings,

Betsy

We're Here!

We arrived in Washington DC safely yesterday evening.  It was an interesting day.  Here, I'll take you along with us.   We left home at 3:55 a.m. to drive to the airport. This was our welcome to sunny Portland, OR where we had a 2 hour layover. Mt. Hood in all it's glory from the airplane window.  Gorgeous.

Percy the train was photographed all along the journey and the pictures texted to Piper. Here he is on the famouse PDX airport carpet.  😄

We weren't sure we were even leaving Portland because of the nasty weather in DC.  We actually left 25 minutes early as they were hoping to get there before the storm got too bad.  No such luck.  The last two hours were very turbulent and then we circled the airport for 45 minutes (after a 5 hour flight), while they tried to clear the runway.  Finally the pilot came on and told us that we only had enough fuel after our cross country flight for one landing attempt.  If we didn't make it, we would have to divert to Norfolk, VA.  As we came in to land you could have heard a pin drop inside the plane it was so quiet.  But they did it!  We landed and the entire plane burst into applause.  We were the last big plane to land.  Right after us a Jet Blue plane touched down and literally skidded down the runway. It was a very scary experience.  I have flown a lot and don't remember ever being that scared on a flight before.  You could see the wings covered with ice.

This was the runway with the wing in the foreground.  Can you see the ground is completely covered in snow and freezing rain?  Because by now it had stopped snowing and freezing rain was pelting down.  We waited at this spot for another 40 minutes until they cleared the jetway of snow with tractors and dump trucks.  Finally we were off the plane.  Brad was waiting for us and we began the normally 45 minute drive to their house which took well over 2 hours.  But he's a great driver and we made it!

And today we went here.  Look at that beautiful blue sky.  What a difference a day makes!  The academy is in Annapolis, MD, about 10 minutes from the kids' house.

One of several of the flags on display.

This anchor was huge outside of the chapel.  

Gorgeous stained glass all around.

This is a three dimensional ship that is hanging from the ceiling.  Amazing.

A navy officer in stained glass.

I have many more pictures of this gorgeous chapel but I don't want to bore you. So much history.  I love history and to see in person many of the places I've only read about and studied is so wonderful for me.

The shops and buildings around the academy are over 200 years old.  I admired the architecture....and the name of this shop!  Sorry about the car.  There were cars everywhere and pictures of them were unavoidable.

And here was Polly when we returned home.  Smart dog, staying inside by the fire.

The two grandpa's really enjoy each other's company.

Now, I love my Mandy more than life itself, as I do all of my kids, but this little girl.  Well this little girl holds my heart in her tiny little fist.  She was so happy to see us.  She couldn't even talk.  She just grinned and grinned and squealed and jumped up and down.  I don't think she believed we were anywhere except inside the iPad anymore.

She was so tired here tonight, at the end of a busy day.  And she still loves her Grandma.  I am a happy Grandma.  Excuse me if you don't see or hear from me much for the next few days.  I'll be playing with Miss Piper.

The end.

Blessings,

Betsy