The 330th good thing about Lagos: Living far away makes summer get-togethers very precious

When we first moved to Lagos we only had one grandchild.  We now have seven.  Of course we love visiting our children, but spending time with grandchildren is extra special.  Undoubtedly the hardest thing about living so far away from family is missing out on so many occasions, special and everyday with our parents, children and grandchildren.  So we were very glad to spend lots of happy times together with them this summer.

 

We made it back just in time for Owen's graduation from preschool.  He's now the biggest kid in his kindergarten class and he reads at a 3rd grade level.

 

 I love that our oldest grandchild, Elise, is enjoying learning to play the piano.  She did a great job at her piano recital.

 We spent LOTS of time in the pool over the summer.  Here I am with Spencer and Austin, grandsons that live in Boston.  I'm so glad they could spend a couple of weeks with us in Houston.

 Maggie likes to make funny faces.

 We had a fun couple of days in Sea World in San Antonio.  Here's my daughter Lindsay with the 5 grandkids who could go on this ride.  It was so fun to get all the grandkids together!

At the Aquarium at Sea World

 We took some walks in the park.

 Story time at the library.

 3-D movie.

 Electrifying times at the park.

 Playing veterinarian at the Children's Museum.

 Lindsay and kids at a play at Miller Outdoor Theater.

 The cousins loved playing together at the jumping fun place.

 And a fun trip to Galveston Beach.

 

And, of course, there were plenty of days of just playing hide and seek and games and the stuff that doesn't get captured in photos.  We are so blessed to have 7 healthy, smart and beautiful grandchildren and we love them all so much and are grateful for their wonderful parents who do such a good job teaching and caring for them.

  Brent was in Houston for the beginning of the summer vacation and then again at the end.   In early August we met up in Seattle where we enjoyed celebrating my nephew's wedding.

 Then we drove with my parents to Vancouver, where we met my aunt (dad's sister) and went on a cruise to Alaska.  I loved our dinnertimes on the ship because I learned a lot of new things about my dad's life when he reminisced with his sister.

 We saw some beautiful scenery -- wonderful glaciers!

 My aunt is so great -- I'm so glad she could come along.

 And my parents had wanted to go to Alaska for years and had never been on a cruise before.  It was a dream come true to do this trip -- I'm so glad we could do it together!

 And it was such a literal breath of fresh air for Brent and I to get away from the dirt and noise of Lagos and enjoy beautiful nature and cool breezes!

 In Anchorage we met up with my cousin -- who I hadn't seen for almost 30 years -- and met his wife.  He's a fighter pilot with the Air Force and she quit the Air Force and is flying planes for Fed Ex.  They live life in the fast lane!  We enjoyed getting to know them better.

 We had a couple of the most beautiful days in Denali National Park with two days of the most clear views of the mountain.  It was wonderful!

 And on a trip down to Seward, we stayed in a yurt on Resurrection Bay and this eagle greeted us when we got up in the morning.

 We watched the sea otters play from the deck of our yurt.

 

It was a wonderful trip to Alaska and a wonderful summer!

The 329th good thing about Lagos: quilting time

I've had a fun time in Lagos learning about quilting.  I've been a part of a fun quilting group and we've had some expert quilters who have shared their expertise with many of us beginners.  I love the vibrancy of African fabrics and I've enjoyed using them in some pretty wild quilts.  I'm definitely not into traditional quilts.   Here's pictures from some of the quilts I've worked on during my time here.

 

This one is a baby quilt that I made for Natalie, my granddaughter.

This quilt is from a pattern called the "Steps to Freedom."  It's one that many of us in the quilting group have made.  It's a relatively simply pattern and it's a fun, scrappy quilt which showcases a variety of fabrics.  We share fabric scraps in the group so we can get a good variety of fabrics for this quilt.

I made some quilts using blue fabrics for presents for two grandsons.  They're pretty wide and crazy.

My daughter-in-law is as new as I am to quilting, but she has a real gift both for composing and creating quilts.  My quilts are amateurish compared to hers.  She also was really productive, at least until the baby she's holding in this picture (my youngest grandson, Mason) got mobile.  And she has 4 young children!  I couldn't believe how many beautiful quilts she was able to finish.  She was very nice to quilt these two large blue quilts on her mom's long arm quilting machine.

My latest quilt, which I finished piecing over the summer is one called a "stack and whack" or a "one block wonder" quilt.  The quilt top is made from using just one fabric, but the pattern is made from how that fabric is cut and put back together.  The quilt top is composed of hexagons made up of triangles that are exactly the same pattern, cut from stacking 6 pieces of fabric on top of each other.  Because the triangles have sides of equal length, each hexagon can have 3 possible variations depending on when corner is in the center. 

The the hexagons are organized into whatever seems to be a pleasing pattern.  This next photo is the hexes arranged on a "design wall."  When they are sewn together, it is done with half hexes sewn in strips, so that part isn't as hard as it may look.   I loved doing this quilt.  It looks like a kaleidescope.  It also wasn't that difficult, though it looks pretty complicated.

I used some of the original fabric around the border of the quilt on the top.

And I also used the original fabric, with some yellow border fabric on the back, so you could see what the fabric looked like in the original state.  My daughter-in-law is also going to quilt this one for me.  I'm excited to see what the finished quilt will look like!

 

The 328th good thing about Lagos: Children's Museum Day



Last May on the day I was leaving Lagos for the summer it was Children's Museum Day at the National Museum.  I had been there for this celebration before and I really wanted to come because the kids are so cute, many of them dressed up or costumed for the occasion.  So I made sure I had my bags packed and ready to go so I could stop over for some of the program. 

 

When I got to the museum, the program was already in progress and prominently in front of the performance area was this car.  I knew there was a "big man" there....

 

The license plate on the Rolls told me who it was -- the Ooni of Ife.  I knew that later in the day at the Museum they would be opening an exhibition of the Art of the Ife.  It is a great exhibition that had travelled to museums around the world, including the British Museum and I had seen it at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  So the King -- called the Ooni -- was there, I'm sure, because of the exhibition opening.  He certainly gets to ride in style.  

 

Don't know which of these guys is the Ooni, but there were lots of "big men" there.

 

 

There were lots of dancing performances from different Nigerian cultural groups.

 

These dancers with all the coral in their dress are from Benin City.

I got some pictures of cute kids in costume waiting in line for the toilet.

Nigerian children are all so beautiful!