Grand Canyon was our next stop.

We enjoyed going up in this tower.

Instead of buying a souviner, I decided to take pictures of the souviners that I'd have loved to buy. And then there's a shot of Indian paintings on the tower wall.

Amy looking up and Paul & I looking down.

The view looking out the tower was awesome.

I just didn't want the children getting too close to the edge.

We saw in the news last week where a man from Canada slipped off the edge and was killed.

We tried to keep our meals down to one a day; so we snacked on ham & cheese & crackers a lot that first week.

Grandmother passed away Saturday, Aug. 9; so we went to VA for the funeral. Here she is at 102 last February.

The family walking to the funeral.

Lowering the casket.

Covering the casket.

Afton taking a turn shoveling dirt.

Uncle Nelson & Aunt Florence look on.

Children watch from Grandfather & Grandmother's headstone.

Check out my sister Polly and niece Jennifer's sites for other pictures and information about Grandmother and the funeral.

Last Monday and Tuesday I took a wonderful class on design & composition by Brett Barker 

We painted paper

and then cut kimonos & rectangles from the painted paper.

Then we were to translate that painted kimono or rectangle into fabric sketches.

Here's my fabric sketch that I call "Pink Oobleck."

The next day we made a collage by cutting out black & white pictures. From the collage we made another fabric sketch.

And here is my collage of "Wheels."

Here Brett shows us how to make a line drawing from a picture.

Other pictures of our work.

It was so interesting to see all the unique and different designs that each class member made. Everyone was so talented.

Congratulations to my sister Barbara.

She just found out that her quilt "Dresden Fanfare" won 2nd place in the large pieced category at Quilt Odyssey.

I'm just as excited, elated, & ecstatic as she is.

I'm interrupting our trip again to show you some quilts that we saw while on our trip. We stayed 2 nights with Uncle Daniel and Aunt Betty in Yakima, WA. Aunt Betty has been making a wall hanging for each of their grandchildren. I was delighted that she pulled these out for me to see.

This Sunbonnet Sue quilt was made by my Grandmother Vera who is now 102. It hangs on the guest bedroom wall where we slept at Uncle Daniels.

This Farmer's Delights was also made by Grandmother Vera. We got to sleep under this beauty.

Our next stop was Four Corners where the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah all meet at one point. We got there a few minutes after 8:00 p.m. and the lady was just closing the gate for the day. We ask to go in and she said we could if we want to walk in and then we'd have to climb the fence to get back out. So we started walking and got our exercise for the day. Since they were officially closed this was another "freebie" for us. Dustin tried charging $3.00 to other people that were walking in while we were walking out!!! He didn't have any luck.

That night we drove way late until we could find a motel, Anasazi Inn.

In the morning we could see the beautiful canyon out behind the motel that we didn't know was there the night before.

At the T in the road, we chose to turn left to go to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We left Delta, CO, traveling through a small Swiss-like town Ouray. There were a lot of scary narrow winding roads; but the scenery was beautiful. Our kinfolks had warned us that part of the road was so narrow that the outside white line had crumbled away. And there are vehicles down in the ravine. That didn't sound good to me. I felt like I had to lean toward the center of the road. Here's a sample of what we saw. They were working on the road and had only one lane traffic, so that's why we were driving on the wrong side.

Here's some other scenery on our way to Mesa Verda National Park.

This is where we took a tour of the Indian Cliff Dwellings. We hiked down to the ruins and then climbed back up ladders to get back out. It was hot, hot, hot down there.

Up on top we stopped at some of the homes and villages of the Puebloan people.

I was pleased as punch to find out that my quilt
"A Plate of Pinapples"
placed second in the
"Wall Quilt, Mainly Pieced" division
in the
Quilt Odyssey Show at Hershey, PA

Our next stop was visiting with Paul's nieces and their family & friends around Delta, CO. We spent the night with Kevin & Renee. Kevin taught all their children to stand stiff like this at an early age. Renae fixed us a yummy supper.

Renae's family from Meigs, GA was visiting also. Here is Uncle Trent with Autumn & Kalley.

We also visited with Paul's niece Paula, Jerel, & Nic.

They live in the front part of his shop and it's fixed up so nice and cute inside.

Here's Paul's sister Lois with 3 of their 4 girls. They about look like triplets.

We had breakfast at Kevin's folk's bakery.

Ervin & Mrs. Kennel

We also enjoyed visiting with Dewayne & Linda Mast who used to live in our area.

We were disappointed to miss Rick & Leona; but at least we got to see their two boys Clint & Ed.

We took in a few touristy things at Royal Gorge. There was a petting zoo and an old time town. Here we get a ride on the little train.

Some of the sites we saw along the way were "Box Canyon," "Iron Springs," and "Paradise."

After leaving Royal Gorge we crossed the Continental Divide on Hwy 50 at Monarch Pass.

We rode to the top on the cable car lift which was kinda scary as it was a little windy and blew you around.

Here comes Dustin, way down there.

It was quite cool up there and Amy and I were glad for our jackets.

Flip-flops in the snow.

On top of the world! It almost made you feel like maybe you were in Switzerland!

Now, will that water end up in the Pacific or Atlantic?

Paul was visiting with some other tourists when I spotted him in the rear view mirror. And then after I took the picture I noticed the sign in the background.