Christmas Decorations

The Christmas decorations are up! I made the Nativity Wall hanging many years ago. The wooden figures are from Israel.

I like to put up my Christmas cards from past years. They are grouped by style. For example, note the Christmas cards arranged as a Nativity Scene. There are also cards that are groupings of snowy scenes, old fashioned Christmas etc. I got the radish ornament in Levenworth, Washington at a Christmas store there. (I collect fruit ornaments.)

Kendal's Skate Practice

One of our days in California, we went to see Kendal, skate. She is a serious skater and does both figure skating and short track speed skating. She is an amazing skater, and a really nice person too. We love her.

Many other skaters were there too. Some have been in the Olympics. It was fun to see them, but we were really there for Kendal.


In one of the pictures she is talking to her coach. It's blurry because I took the picture through the glass.


Annette is a great support to Kendal and is always there to take her to practices, lessons, and events; sew her beautiful costumes, and cheer for her on the sidelines!


The last picture is a series of pictures of Kendal in action.

Disneyland - Sep 2009 - part 1

I have not finished this, but I'll post what I have and finish it later.
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As part of our California trip in September, we went to Disneyland for two days. On Tuesday Greg and I went with Annette to Disneyland, and on Thursday, Greg and I went to California Adventure. We had a great time!


We were all excited to go to Disneyland. We drove through the outside gates then around the new California Adventure park to the huge parking garage. We followed the lead car up the ramps to the 5th floor. We noted our parking place then got out and walked to the escalators to go down. We walked to the loading area and waited in line for a tram. As we rode the tram we saw several Halloween scenes featuring Micky and Minnie Mouse. We disembarked from the tram.

Then we waited in another line to go through the security area where our bags were searched. We waited in another line to pick up our tickets. We went through the gates and were were inside! From the time we entered the outside gate to when we were finally inside Disneyland, it took 1 hour! Wow!

We talked down Mainstreet to Tomorrow land and rode the Star Tours ride. It is always a lot of fun.

Earlier in the day we had gone to a skating rink to watch Kendal practice her figure skating. Annette had to take Kendal to school then she was meeting us at Disneyland. So we walked back down Main street to one of the stores to wait for her. She soon arrived.

Fall 2009

Fall is here and the leaves are turning. I just had to take some pictures!

Glen and Sarah's Birthdays!

Glen and Sarah had birthdays just three weeks apart! We had a little party for each of them.

Congratulations! We love you!
















From the left: Joyce, Glen, baby Logan, Sarah, Amber, Dalin, and Daynen.

California Trip - Beach

The Beach September 2009

At long last, the day that Greg dreams about all year had arrived. We were at the beach!

His sunscreen was on, we had the boogie boards, and he was ready to ride some waves.

Greg's mom, Maggie, and brother, Lance went with us.
















Greg surveys the waves, looking for a good one.


















He's ready to go in!



















A promising wave!















The air was clear and warm. Here is the view back toward the parking lot.
















I took a little walk down to the rocks. It's a really pretty beach. At low tide there are tide pools. Today the tide is high.





























Lance going in!
















The water temperature was in the 70s, so it was very pleasant. They both caught a few waves.















After their swim, the two brothers rest and dry off for a while and enjoy a snack.














Although the waves were small, it was still a satisfying day at the beach.

Red Fish Lake Trip

Greg and I took a relaxing trip to Stanley and Redfish Lake. To get there we took the northern route through Arco and Challis.

As we pulled into Stanley the rain was really coming down and so was the hail! It was sliding off the roofs and making piles of ice! Notice you can't even see the mountains because of all the clouds.

The next day we had planned to take a boat across the lake and do some hiking there, but it rained all day. ALL day without letting up at all! We still had fun just driving to several lakes and enjoying the fresh air. It was cold though. Here is a sitka columbine. It cleared up enough in the evening for us to hike up to the peak behind the Creekside lodge and take a picture of Stanley.


















On Saturday we had planned to hike to Sawtooth lake, but it was very cold and foggy. The forcast was for more rain, and possibly even snow in the mountains!

We decided to stay closer to civilization. We took the shuttle across the lake and did a little hiking there. We hiked around the lake to one of my favorite places where a small waterfall comes down into the lake. The water make a cool spray and it looks like a little fairyland with the moss and little mushrooms and flowers.



Then we hiked up to the lily ponds. Here is some interesting moss we saw with little moss flowers? We saw a tiny frog on one of the lily pads on the pond. There were wildflowers everywhere and huckleberries too! Yum!


A sign said there was a waterfall less than a mile further so we hiked up to it.

It beautiful big waterfall that I had never seen before! All those years of hiking above the lake and I never got up to it!

The falls drops about 10 feet! It doesn't look like it because this picture was taken from a distance. It's a big roaring waterfall!

Later as we waited for the shuttle to take us back, a curious deer gave us several opportunities to take her picture. The shuttle ride back was fun too.

On Sunday, we drove home. We planned on a short walk to another lake above Galena pass. It turned into more of a hike than we had planned. Was that really only 1 1/2 miles? It seemed a lot longer, and was quite steep, unlike what the guidebook claimed!















It was not what we had expected, but we had a great time anyway on our Sawtooth Vacation.