Tripp Trapp Tripp Trapp on the Bridge

Okay! Let's go meet the Fremont troll. You go first_ No, You go first
He seems quiet so far.

Oh no! He doesn't like males!

the Sound of the Sound

Ferns growing on a nurse tree on the hike.
We arrive at the Puget Sound.

The gentle lapping of the water in the protected sound

From Potter to Jetson

Up the lego-like escalator to the top of the Seattle library, rated in the top 5 of the nation's libraries for architecture. It is very modern, quite a change from the old England feel of the University library.

Driving home on I-5 during rush hour to cook our salmon and oysters from Pike's Market. It was fresh and delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving One and All

Rachel, Sean and I took a walk in the nature preserve and saw this little flock. You can see the big guy watching out for his hens. Then he walked up closer to us while his hens contentedly pecked away. He looks very Americana to me. Sean-Sean_you missed it.

Gulls Again

I am substituting in the Primary 5 class. What do you know!? The lesson has the story of the miracle of the gulls. I made some origami gulls to send home with them.

Hawks in the Tree Rows

Home from School

I'm sneaking to the top of the stairs sideways to catch this video. Luke likes the comic Calvin and Hobbs very much. He wants to do what Calvin does when he gets home from school. He doesn't want his mom to meet him outside when he gets off the bus because he wants to come in house and announce...........

Gulls and Me

We are renting out the farm next year so they are preparing the ground for sugar beets. Another chapter of life is closing. It's been bittersweet to watch them till up the alfalfa.

It helped when my affection for the gulls kicked in. The California gulls have been busy getting the mice in the fields and also bugs and worms, doing what they do so well, eating.

Similar to what they did, eating crickets, that helped pioneer saints rescue their crops that first season in the Salt Lake valley. Their story was my first introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, nick-named the Mormons.

Sometime between age 8 and 13 when we were living in the house in Campbell CA, I watched a movie on TV one afternoon called Brigham Young. It was the story of his efforts to transport the saints to somewhere safe. I was thunderstruck by the miracle of the gulls. The birds helped save their crops that were being devoured by crickets.

I thought, "God still watches over His people and answers their prayers just like He did in the Bible."

I asked my mom about it and she told me about the "Mormons."

I eventually married a descendant of pioneer saints. Those California gulls were heaven sent to early saints in 1848 and I feel like they were heaven sent to me too. I think they are beautiful.

This Old Maaaan......He Played 5........

He'll play nick-nack while you jive....With a nick-nack paddy wack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home.

His favorite part of the childrens museum: the mousehole in the German house.

Baby Cobra Position

Demonstrated by a real baby.

What Katydids Do!

I love to play, so I was very happy the day my whole family went to the park.
My mommy and daddy and new baby brother came. My grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and cousins came too.

We played hide and seek in the trees.



Then somebody noticed an interesting insect on the back of mommy's chair. It was a katydid.




One time a katydid was on my grandma's rosebush and it had some pink on it that matched the rose.





Katydids are like crickets only they are green like leaves but they can change their color a little bit to hide on plants. They live in the tops of trees and chirp a song that sounds like "katy-did."






I think insects are so interesting I wanted to hold the katydid.

My daddy helped me put it in my hand.

Then it crawled up to my elbow.

It still kept crawling and went up to my shoulder. That's when daddy said I needed to give my big cousin a turn to hold it.

My cousin held it on his hand.

I wished it was still my turn to hold it.

Then a terrible thing happened! The katydid flew away!
Now I wouldn't get another turn! Daddy said, "That's what katydids do."

My cousin just walked away but I was so sad my daddy had to take me home to rest.

After my nap I felt better. Then I said, "I have an idea!"

I got my green coloring pencil and drew a katydid and I colored some pink on it too.

This time we mean it!

Thanks a lot Cory. Dad cut the grape tomatoes in disks and dried them and now we have tasty little dried tomatoes for our salads this winter. And they are pretty too.

Thanks a lot Cory, now what?

More pictures of the Dust Bunny

New Lawn

These pictures are for Fran to see the Sweet Peas and other flowers by the driveway and to see the results of the 3 days of sod laying(only a few hours each day).

3rd

We went canoeing at Dierke's lake. Does Rachel realize she is doing all the work? It was our last outing and we had to get it in because Luke said, "If I don't go in the canyon this week I'm going to whack out!" (He learned that phrase from Calvin and Hobbs)

We went to Tracy's house for a visit. It made me emotional to see Rachel do her thing again.
We had an overnight campout in a tent at Alturas Lake. It was lovely.

Dad caught these fish for dinner. They were delicious. Even Mike liked them and he isn't a fish eater. But they didn't taste or smell fishy, just delectable.

We did a mile and a quarter hike to 4th of July lake. We drove through 10 miles of burned out forest to get to the trailhead. Mike and Luke hiked around the lake in their barefeet. It was fun because it was spongy.

The hike back down. A little diversion for the boys.