Christmas 2014 -- 2nd Leg of the Trip

The first leg of our trip was actually our trip to Branson.  It combined anniversary with Christmas.  Next we drove to Jeanette & Jason's house for Christmas.  Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day.  Laura was able to come Wednesday and Thursday.  Aaron will be here today.  Then we will all go to Amy & Mike's on Saturday.

Here is their family on Christmas morning.

There were some lost parts for this bike, so the "putting together" had to be done Christmas morning.

The boys got a little indoor tent which they really liked.

Doctor Noah

Play Dough is always fun.

The boys playing together in the kitchen.

It was game day for a while.

Mikan found it all a little overwhelming.

I think Sawyer did too.

Bye, Laura.  See you soon.

Branson 2014

We did go to Branson for our anniversary, but despite the fact that I hauled our camera around with us, it stayed in the car most of the time.  I really intended to take lots of pictures but this is what we ended up with.  I'm happy with these.

Tow Mater was happy to visit with Alan.

Carolyn spent some time with Lightning McQueen.

Surprise -- It's a Wedding!

This last month has been so very busy, especially for Alan.  The other day he said, "This is what my life is going to be like for the next few years, isn't it?"  Every day there has been a major happening in the branch.  He has done a wonderful job dealing with all of it, but he is looking forward to our week away from home.  He deserves a vacation.  It will go fast though.  They always do.

Here is today's happening.  We were at the church yesterday decorating for a branch social that is to take place today.  Brenda Lewis showed up with her "friend" that she met on LDS Planet.  He has been out here this week for the first in-person meeting.  They have been corresponding for a while.  Last night after we got home the plan was put together and we were notified that their wedding was to take place today prior to the branch social.  Alan was asked to perform the wedding.  Whew!  The wedding is over now, ham and potatoes are in my oven, and we go to the church again in another hour.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow when all I have to do is get ready for traveling and for Christmas.

Meet Marc and Brenda Castor.  

 

 

 Michelle Smith was thoughtful enough to provide the bouquet.

The happy couple with President Barnard.

Here are the rings.

I'm Still Alive

I just noticed that I hadn't posted anything since about a week into November.  This will be a quick post just to let you all know that I am still alive.  I baked a banana cream pie the other day when our Elders came to dinner.  One of them had requested it for Thanksgiving and I postponed it until December.

New Calling

It was an eventful day.  I know you have already heard about this, but here are some pictures to go with it.  Alan was interviewed Friday and sustained today as the new Branch President of the Salem Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He gave a really good talk, as did our Stake President.  We had a pretty big crowd there too.

Our new and our out-going Branch Presidents

 

 

Our missionary couples - the Colsons go home Tuesday and the Munfords are here for about four months.

This shows the people in attendance today.  It's hard to see them all unless you enlarge it.

ROCKET!!

Who recognizes the Rocket?

No, this isn't my daddy's rocket.  It disappeared when we moved, but I found this one at Gateway and was really excited.

September's Trip

It's been quite some time since I've posted.  It's not like nothing has been going on.  It's more like a lot has been going on -- either that or I'm just good at putting things off.  It's probably both.

We had a good trip to Oregon, California and Washington.  We took the train all the way to Los Angeles via Chicago.  We changed trains in Chicago and also in Los Angeles.  Then we went up the coast (in view of the ocean much of the way) all the way to Eugene, Oregon.  We met lots of nice people on the train.  I tried to get some good pictures out the window of the train but that's really hard to do.  Things tend to show up fuzzy because of the speed.  If I knew the ins and outs of my camera I could probably set it to compensate for that.

This was taken from the train in California.  I love that you can see where your food is grown.  It's so pretty.

These are some inlets from a bay.  It was interesting to see the patterns the water made.

I don't remember exactly where this was taken.  We were allowed to get off the train at some of the stations.  I love these palms even more than the really tall ones.

 

 

A big storm came up as we were crossing Texas.  At least I think we were in Texas still.  It took us a long time to get all the way across that state.  

Here we were driving up the coast in California, just about to enter an area of fog.  Fog can be very thick along the ocean some days.

This was when we got out and walked back through some trails through the big redwoods.  One had fallen here so we asked someone to take our picture by it.

No, he couldn't quite reach around this one.  It wasn't the largest of the trees we saw, but it was in a good location for a picture.

This is basically what it looks like to stand on the ground and look up through the trees.  They really dwarf you.

Here is "cute little us" when we first entered the redwood area.  A guy who was motorcycling through there took our picture and we took his.

Alan seemed to get joy out of taking my picture pigging out on something that is not part of my diet.  I forgot what they called this monster burger but it had ham, bacon, cheese, tomato, lettuce and lingonberry jam (yes, really!) on a really big burger.  I ate the whole thing.  Those were good crispy fries too.  Yum!

There's something to be said for a sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

There's even more to be said for having your sweetie there with you by the ocean at sunset.  We had to use the flash to have us show up so the sunset doesn't look very spectacular here.

We drove through an area in Oregon where a volcano had erupted.  Talk about desolate

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I thought this was a pretty good one of Mary and Brian.  It was really nice to spend some time with them.  They have a very pretty home out in the country.

Oh sorry, Mary.  One of the poodles jumped up on her just as the camera clicked.  Hence her shocked look.  They have a very nice deck.

We almost forgot to take this one.  I wanted to get a picture of the two siblings.  It would have been nice to get David in this one too.  Guess we'll have to try to get the three of them together another time.

I just thought this was cute of Mary and her little horse.

We did get an opportunity to attend the Seattle, Washington Temple before returning home.  I got this one picture and then my battery died and I didn't have the other one with me.  It was interesting that they had copies of the statues that are outside the Nauvoo Visitors Center.  I wanted to get some more of the grounds but at least this one turned out pretty good.

While in Seattle we went to the Space Needle which was built in 1962.  There is a revolving restaurant in the round part at the top.  We had lunch there.  As it revolves you are able to see the city all around you.  The lunch was kind of expensive but as part of that cost we were able to go up above the restaurant to the viewing area.

Here we are atop the Seattle Space Needle with the city behind us.  I'm trying to figure out what the top of my hair was doing.

As we drove through the Chinese section of the city of Seattle I saw this dragon climbing the pole and had to get a shot of him.  There was another one but I missed him.

This was taken from a cute little park across the bay from Seattle.  We got some good New England clam chowder at a restaurant here.  This picture reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle.

Same park -- nicely landscaped.

 

 

Independence Day??

Near the Space Needle

Zach, this one is for you.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see that these building stones look like huge Legos.

 

 

This is the fence between the USA and Mexico.

Big Bargain

I went out to a yard sale today and I'm glad I did.  I went to only the one sale.  I picked up this Adidas jacket & tried it on; it fit.  I turned to the lady doing the sale and asked, "How much do you want for this jacket?"  It didn't have a tag on it.  She said, "Fifty cents".  Can you believe fifty cents?  I didn't have to think twice.  I also found a nice leather purse that was fifty cents.  Sorry I can't take a picture of it right now.  When I got it home I realized it had a cigarette smell to it.  It's in a big Ziploc bag with some kitty litter right now.  I'm hoping that will help.

Different Look

This is going to be a quick post because it is late and I'm really tired.  I went to see Debbie Bryan for a trim and ended up with this easy care "do".  I'm not sure if this photo shows it to the best angle, but here is my new look.

Kitchen Post & Beasley Visit

Okay, I'm going to start this post with some stuff from my kitchen, because if I started with pictures of Jeanette & Jason's family you wouldn't want to see my kitchen stuff.  The other day I went out visiting teaching and was gone quite a while.  When I got back Alan had already left to tune a piano.  Here is the note I found on the kitchen counter.

Isn't he cute?

This was my dinner the other day.  The veggies were a lot better than they look here.  I love summer vegetables.

I messed up my old pressure cooker, cracking the pressure release valve.  It was so old that I couldn't find a replacement part.  So here is the newest addition to our kitchen.  I thought I should take a picture while it is still pretty and shiny.

I just watched a video on using light, interest and background in taking pictures.  They said to take a picture in a room of your house.  Then take another one with a subject in it.  Well, here is my subject:  Pakamer.

Here's another subject.  Sawyer had just been enjoying a milkshake.

Here's Jason playing peek-a-boo with the boys.

Sawyer loves walking to Noah.

Everyone likes a little book reading.

Tessa wondered what was going on.

The family getting ready to head home.  Except I think I'll keep Alan.