Thanksgiving

This year we were invited out to Meledies house for Thanksgiving dinner. We really enjoyed the meal with her and the Missionaries. The only problem was that we didn't get cell service and missed several of your calls. We had a wonderful meal and ended the evening teaching our missionaries the fine art of playing Chicken Foot.

Cannery

Dave and I were just called to extend our service mission at the dry pack cannery for another year. We were supposed to be released November 9th but are happy to do it another year.

Right after we came to Washington last year to take care of my parents we called Shelf Reliance in Utah and ordered some shelves for the #10 cans and a bunch of food storage. We set up a storage room and have been working hard to fill it but we are still lacking enough shelves and would like to get a better variety of food. We are working on it and hope all you kids are doing the same!
I'm sure you have seen www.shelfreliance.com
We love these shelves and use the same ones at the dry pack cannery! It might be a good idea to think about for your families for Christmas!

Two Weeks of Bliss

Erin was so nice to change my background so I decided I'd better post something new. Doris (My wonderful sister) came here from North Dakota on Amtrak so she could stay with my parents and let Dave and I go visit our kids. She was here for 13 wonderful days!!
Now the embarrassing part. We went on a wonderful trip and didn't take any pictures! It was so crazy because we planned to but all we did is take some as we drove down the coast and then we never pulled out the cameras again.
Here are some pictures of the Redwoods. Dave took all the pictures in this blog. He is enjoying his photography.

The trees are so big and it was so quiet and restful there.

As we came to the Coast in Oregon this funny little motel was right across the street from the first ocean view we saw. We stopped and wouldn't go another foot. It was so beautiful there and the roar of the waves was so wonderful. It was wonderful and dumpy and cheap and we would do it again! We truly relaxed on this vacation!
So beautiful! You know how much dad always liked doing panarama shots... now his camera helps him. Isn't it pretty? You can see why we relaxed so much!

Not a bad picture for a beginner is it?

This is what Dave did most of the trip. I drove and he relaxed!

I mean really relaxed!!!

On our trip we went to David and Julies home in California. He got us into Disneyland the next day then we met his family at Disneyland for dinner. David got us a fancy suite at the Paris in LasVegas to stay on our way to Utah the next evening. It was so fancy that we just stayed in our room all evening! We went on to Utah and saw the rest of the kids. Everyone had fun things planned for us. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!! Lee took Dave to enjoy a U of U football game in box seats, I went trick or treating with Erin's kids, We went to breakfast with Tracy and Steve, went out to Lunch with Lee, Had a fun family home evening and dinner with everyone, Had a fun day and dinner at Jared's, Dave talked at a youth fireside in Erin's ward. We were only there a few days but it was a whirlwind and wonderful thanks to the kids! I think it was a perfect trip.

Moms projects

Remember our cute little chicks??? Guess what? They grew up and now we have 12 hens and 2 roosters! One rooster reminds me of fried chicken but so far he has been spared. Mom gathers the eggs every day and counts them. Here we have 7 eggs.
Today's eggs are more like it. Eleven!!! We have even had 12 eggs twice. We sure do love them and so do our neighbors and friends!
Mom decided she wanted to do something with her dining room curtains. They look much better in this picture than they really were. They were faded and even broken in some places so we knew we needed a change.

The problem was what to do?

We put up 3 new cordless shades that are so easy to put up and down and we took a trip to the thrift store to find the perfect valance. Boy did we luck out. It is hard to tell in these pictures but the fabric on these valances is so rich and beautiful. WE LOVE IT!

It is so much better in person so come on over!!! After that mom was getting pretty confident so without saying a word to Pops or Dave we took a hammer to........

Moms wall!! IT LOOKS SO GOOD AND DIFFERENT! Can you see what is gone? The Amber plastic panels that went to the ceiling are now gone. Pops heard the banging while he was outside but looked all over the living room/dining room and couldn't see what we had done. Whew! He did seem okay with it though when he found it. Okay mom now what?

Mt. Ranier, Herman, Sheri leaves

Last Monday we took a little adventure down to Enumclaw and stayed overnight with Uncle Ron and Aunt Alice. Our plan was to take a drive up Chinock Pass and enjoy a picnic while looking at Mt. Ranier. The mountain looks so huge from there but we never did get to see it because after having a beautiful week the clouds decided to obscure our view. This was the most we saw of the mountain!

We saw a few huge trees however!!!

And the scenery was breathtaking! The Mountain Ash were full of berries and looked beautiful.

Oops! Still no Mt. Ranier!!! This was the view most of the day.

But this view was what I saw when I turned my back on Mt Ranier!! So pretty! We didn't feel slighted in the least.

We drove up into the clouds and stopped for our picnic. I thought it was so beautiful! Here is a real cute guy on a rock!!

Isn't it beautiful up there?

Aunt Alice made the most wonderful picnic lunch that we really enjoyed!

It wasn't as cold as it looks but it was damp from the fog. The type of damp that goes right through ya and yells I need a jacket!

Dave, Aunt Cathern Harston, Pops, Mom, Aunt Alice & Uncle Ron Brownell
It was a perfect day and now we must go back to see what the clouds hid!

Herman Gets a New Family Look

Herman has been stuck in that tree for years and finally received a new "Family" look. The hairdu seems to fit. I have been watching for a new face for a long time but they were all too scary and grotesque. This week I finally found this one at the thrift store for $1.25. Was it worth it? Pops says he looks a little too happy but I'd be happy too if I finally got a new face after wearing the one he had for so many years!

Oops I guess you can't really see his face. Sorry... mom says it isn't happy but a grimmise. Whatever?!

Sherilyn and Joel leave for Nauvoo

Friday Sherilyn and Joel took their 5th wheel (after living in it here on the property for a year) and left on a long extended vacation. They will go see Lynn and Sharon in Nauvoo then go down south.
Ellie wasn't sure she wanted to travel in her carseat that far but Seth was already asleep by the time they left!

It was quite a job hooking it all up and unpluging from life here after a year!

There they go!! That is one BIG travel trailer!!! We already miss them.

Mish Mash

I called this post Mish Mash because it is a lot of little stuff that I should have blogged ages ago but didn't get around to doing it. I didn't even take very good pictures but plan to remedy that in the future!

This first picture was taken at Randy and Lisas in Coupeville. They invited us last Monday for Family Home Evening. Randy caught some Salmon that morning and barbequed it for us. It was SOOOO good!
Here is Pops and Dave sitting on Randys new patio with the kids playing and having fun on the trampoline.
Last Saturday Sheri had a yardsale in our carport to make some money for their trip to visit Lynn and Sharon in Nauvoo in 2 weeks.
There was lots of stuff!!! We all took advantage and cleaned out lots of closets. We hope she made lots of money. It was fun and full of people.
Pops has been going to Physical therapy twice a week and also doing some at home everyday because of his accident. Here he is with his elastic exercises
Today Mom and Pops and Dave and I froze 20 packages of Corn. Yummmmmm we love frozen corn from the garden!
We still have our deer coming thru our yard every day. There are several bucks, does and fawns.

We really enjoy watching them!

Jenny and Bryant came and stayed the night Sunday and enjoyed Labor day with us. They have just moved here to Fort Lewis from Cincinatti. We had a fun barbeque. They have a neat family.

A couple of really nice old men who hang around here!

Oops! Where is Tera? Wrong picture! Oh well. Tera and Erick came to bring their car to ship it to Germany. It has to be shipped from Seattle or LA, We were so glad they chose Seattle so we get to see them again before they leave. We did a bit of sightseeing because Erick has never been here. We took them to Deception Pass. That is the bridge behind Erick.
Here is Tera with Erick up on the Deception Pass bridge. We enjoyed them for a few days and will really miss them!
Meledie and I spent a day at Friday Harbor. This is a lighthouse on the island. It was all so beautiful!
But what was really cool is there were Orca whale out there . We watched several of them out in the waves.

What a day!

Where are they??? Oh ya there they are!!! It was a really cool day and I'm so glad I got to go.

Jared and family come to visit

Jared and Casi came and spent the week. We were so excited for them to come we couldn't hardly wait! The girls (Mallory and Lily) got acquainted with Pickles and Pansy.
Also the chickens. We let them out the kids loved them and all went well until one of them decided to chase Mallory. That was it! No more enjoying them.
They loved doing other things in the yard like swinging!
We all enjoyed watching our other "pets". These are all bucks!
We had a fun hike up to the ice caves up in the mountains past Verlot. We hiked about 2 miles or so.
The caves were so cool~ I mean really chilly cooool. After the hike in the heat we needed the cool blasty air.
Lewis got a little tuckered out but smiled the whole way until he crashed and then woke up smiling! Unbelievable!!
We also went up to Darrington and saw the big slice of tree. It is SO big! At the ranger station they showed us a map of all the forest fires up around Darrington. We had no idea there could be so many because we hadn't heard about them but they were all started by lightening. Scarey!
We took them to the Puget Sound right across from Downtown Seattle and watched Janice and Matt scuba dive. They brought up lots of fun sea creatures from the bottom and put them in a large tub so we could see them . We have some really cool pictures but they are all on Casi's camera and they already left!!! Bummer! Look on Casi's blog in a few days to see those! We also went to Deception Pass in the above picture.

And Fort Cassey. The girls thought it was named after their mom.

We found a spot and hid so we could scare every one. We sure scared them!

This is our new4 generation picture we took this morning before they left.

We miss these guys already!!!

This and that and the other

The heat has been terrible this week!!! There is no way to even describe it. It blew away all records since the 1800s when they started keeping track. Almost no one has air conditioning here including my parents. On Monday I was worried about Mom and Pops. Pops is still recovering from his accident and on the news it said people need to be in air conditioning at least a couple of hours to cool off their core temperatures. So we took them for a drive in the mountains. We tried earlier in the day to buy an air conditioner and were told everyone was out but there was an emergency shipment coming to Costco the next morning. We went early to Costco the next day but they already had given out tags to people who were waiting and were gone. Bumber!

Then on a whim we went to Lowes. We found an air conditioner which was made for a volt 220 line. We bought it because we knew there was a 220 line in the carport for pops portable welder. Everyone in the store who saw it on our cart wanted to know where we got it. Their phone was ringing off the hook with people who were asking for air conditioners or fans and everyone was out. We even got it for a discount because it was out of the box! The problem was that when we got home our plug was 30 amps and we needed 15 amps! And we needed one which was just dedicated to the AC and that one wasn't. We ended up running a new line that is solely for the AC and now it works so good!
It normally NEVER reaches 100. People are just dying in the 90s. Everyone is swimming in the river to get out of the heat. The park by the bridge was so full of cars that people were parking on the highway for 1/4 a mile. Sheri and Joel went there but said it was even hot there unless you were right in the water.
Mom says ahhhhhh this is more like it. The cooler works so well and the house is finally nice and cool.
Doesn't look too bad for all it does to make us comfortable does it? It is such a blessing!!! It is quite small but it puts out more cool than we need!!! AH life is good.
Dave is still doing his barbering.... mostly just for Uncle Jared and Pops. Jared was getting a bit shagy.

Now that is more like it!

With the hair cutting done Dave and Jared decided to go do a little fishing up at Lake Cavanaugh.

Driveway resealed

This week we had some guys come and reseal the driveway. It hadn't been done for several years so would be ruined if it weren't taken care of. They filled all the cracks with tar then sprayed the whole driveway.
It was really thirsty and soaked up the spray. We were pleased with how good of a job they did. The spray went on brown and turned jet black as it dried.
They were careful of the rocks and flowers so it looked good when it was all done. We couldn't drive on it for 24 hours so drove thru the yard down by the garden.
Mom suggested we take some pictures of her flowers now in full bloom so here are some fun random pictures in the yard. When we came to live with Mom and Pops we said we wanted the yard to be like a beautiful park for Mom and Pops to enjoy. These pictures show where we are at this point. There is a lot more we can do but this is probably the "Park" for this Summer. Now we will start adding more perrenials and long lasting beautiful areas. Enjoy the pictures!

Pops accident

We have had a lot of fun with our farm animals. Last Saturday while Dave and I were at the temple Pops thought he would put a rope on Pickles so he could lead her around and then we could tie her up in other parts of the yard that aren't fenced. He and Dave had talked about doing that sometime but Dave hadn't done it yet and so far had only put a halter on her so she could get used to it. We don't know what happened because Pops can't remember but he was knocked out and lay in the pasture for at least an hour until mom realized it was past lunch time and Pops hadn't come in so she went looking for him. She called 911 and they took him to the hospital.
He was released by about 6PM and has been recuperating at home. He has really been miserable and finally Tuesday we took him back to the doctor because we were concerned and found out he has pneumonia. Things are going well finally but this next picture shows you why he feels so bad.
Doesn't it just make you feel bad? He has been in a lot of pain but he is so blessed to even still be here with us!! We sure love him and feel bad this happened. Be sure to comment so I can read them to him.

The unveiling of our huge paint job

For those of you who have been holding your breath...waiting for me to blog our new paint job on the house.... ta da!!!! The day is finally here!!! We finished yesterday. We have been working on it every day for two weeks and are thrilled with the results. We are also worn out and tired of painting!! Okay, Now lets see what you think. I decided to put up unpainted then painted right after so you can compare each part of the house.

We are busy working on the front of the house.

Dave and I just starting. I always get paint in my hair so I was prepared. Yes I finally did get paint in my hair the last couple of days when I was so tired I didn't care enough to cover it!

Joel helped us out several times and we were so appreciative!

This is our audience and biggest supporters.

Still doing the front.

The front finished!

Different huh? Do you like the color change?

We painted the screen door white and painted Pops handrail black. We put up a new light.

After we get back from Sages wedding in Nauvoo we will repaint the steps and deck.

The carport before.

And after. It is so much brighter in the kitchen because the carport is so light now.

The deck

Do you like the new lights?

The living room is so light because of the reflected light on the deck.

The north side of the house.

The back

All finished. Now lets see.... What is our next project???? Nauvoo here we come!!!! Look out world we are ready for a vacation. We will fly out Monday and stay there for a week and I vow not to even look at a paintbrush!!!

This is for my sister-in-law Sharon!

Isaac (Dorrel's 12 year old son)

Grandpa, Meledie and William

Victoria (Robyns neice) and Lainey (Randy's daughter)

Janice and Savannah (Randy's)

Last Sunday was a baby blessing for my neice's daughter. I told Sharon I would take lots of pictures for her. She and Lynn are on a mission in Nauvoo and living in our home. It is hard on missionaries to miss out on baby births and blessings so this is my feeble attempt to let them feel a part of this family gathering. Mom is holding Ellie Woodson who was blessed a few hours before.
All the Western Washington kids of Lynn and Sharon were there. Brent and his family were too far away but Lisa, Randy and family came from Coupeville to attend the blessing and potluck afterwards.
These are the proud parents. Isn't Sherilyn looking good for having a one month old baby?
Ellie Woodson being held by uncle Dave. She really is a cutie and so allert and tiny.

Robyn wouldn't miss this for anything. Isn't she really Aunt Robyn?

Dorrel was there with his family. He holds any baby he can find... this happens to be Randy's little Darcy.

Such a nice day to sit and visit. Jacob was a bit bored but aren't all teenagers?

Bishop Randy and Darcy

We had lots of food and time to enjoy it.

Aunt Janice and Uncle Matt are always making things fun for everyone. Janice helped organize and plan our potluck.

Cousins!

Uncle Dave and his famous football hold

Grandma sure loves her Great-grandbabies!!

Ellie Says:
It sure is great to be born!!! I love you grandma Sharon and grandpa Lynn. Aren't I cute?