Washington State in June

Solo Point, this is where the Bear starts his PT. Quite an uphill run from here. We saw lots of itty bitty crabs, a jelly fish, and millions of barnacles at low tide.















Up the hill to the old Insane Asylum. Glad it wasn't still there or they may have wanted to keep me.















At the entrance to Mt. Rainier. Have to love camera's with timers. Am I really this fat, it must be the camera lens?















Paradise on Mt. Rainier, or it will be after the summer thaw. We looked at the beautiful pictures of this spot on the internet and didn't think about the fact that those pictures were taken at a much later date. We did get to see the Mountain from a distance, which not everyone gets to do in June.















In the grove of the Patriarch's with the 1000 year old trees (yep abe and I felt right at home).















One goonie girl enjoying the view near the Goonie rock's on the 25th anniversary celebration of this historic movie...
















Enjoying the views at bridal veil falls with one of our favorite people.




















Right from WOW...















Beautiful ripe berries over a fast running stream.




















Seattle Temple (Just in case you can't read the words on the sign)















We had some time to kill before we got to the airport and we found a brown sign showing us the way to a scenic place. So we drove off the freeway and found the "Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection". The price for the tour was within our budget (free dollars) so we parked and strolled among some really cool Bonsai trees. This one is over 400 years old. Well worth your time if you are ever just a little south of the Sea Tac Airport and have some time to kill.

January to May

Resting on a 7 mile hike in January















Abraham boys never run out of energy even after our long hike















A day to remember in February















Building Snow Persons in February















Sledding on a perfect day




















Ski bunny??















Welcome Boy Four to the family in March














Working up hunger on ice cream for Easter






























Just swinging on Easter















First Easter Eggs















Boy cousins















Smiling Boy Four in April















May at the Zoo - Madison the tour guide















Resting near the petting zoo

The end of 2009

Happy 33rd Anniversary - Welcome Baby Boy Three to the family















Petroglyphs in November















Coloring for Thanksgiving















Temple Lights in December















Hiking South Mountain last week of December

Windows

We decided to put new windows in our summer home, so we had someone come and measure them. Since there were quite a few sales, we got them cheaper than we thought we might. So, we are replacing 16 windows. This should be a great thing right?

They were scheduled to come and do the install on Thursday. I knew they had my cell number so I went to work early to get a few things done, they would call when they got the the house right??? Anyway I didn't get a call so I decided that I must have given them the wrong day. About noon I found out that my phone was not working that morning and I had over 6 voice messages - 3 were from the installers. So plan B, they would come Friday morning. Friday afternoon abe was leaving for the Father & Sons and I had thought I could take the girls out and do something fun. Not with installers here, so Friday night they finally left at 7 and I went and bought something for supper. I did take the dog for a walk and scared the installers as they didn't realize that I had taken the dog and they were looking everywhere for him.

Even better, they wanted to come back at 6:30 am Saturday morning, so no sleeping in on this day. Since this house was built over a period of years, none of the existing windows was installed the same. The installers have really gotten frustrated, but it will be great once it is done.

I can't go too far from home today as they are here. Can't really do anything in my house either, and can't even relax and watch TV. Oh, well abe should be home soon so at least I will have someone to talk to. Poor, poor me..

Wednesday - or as we called it Bri's day

Guess what we had for breakfast??? Yep, same old same old. This was the day we planned to take Bri for a drive. I had to stop and email the pics as well as download a few geocaches in Minnesota to add to our day. We left Bri and Melly at the hotel while we went to pick up Auntie Dee since we were going to have to drive right by the hotel anyway.

On to Flandreau, where we saw a covered wagon train going through the main part of town. The first wagon said something about Pipestone days on the side of it. We went to check out a geocache we had missed the last time we were in the area, but we still didn’t have much luck with this one.

We drove to Pipestone and the Pipestone National Monument. Melly slept all the way there and also while we walked the ¾ mile trail around the park. We stopped and took pictures of flowers and other interesting sites. The two ladies sat in the car and Melly stayed with them. The weather was nice enough for that and we left them in the shade with the windows down. Auntie Dee did worry when we were gone. She thought something had happened to us. We stopped by the pond where the Hiawatha pageant in held every year and took pictures of the rocks there.

A lady that works at the assisted living home told us to go to Lange’s café in Pipestone. She told us that they had great pie. I didn’t think we would be able to find this specific place, especially as I couldn’t remember the name of it. But as we were driving around (looking for a geocache) we found the café and bakery. They have their pie in a display case at the front and one of the pies that was obvious was Sour Cream Raisin with Meringue. My all time favorite pie. Bri and I shared a meal so we could have dessert. Melly slept through most of the meal. Auntie Dee of course wasn’t hungry, but could eat a sundae. They had really good food and the best type of ice. They brought us a pitcher of water and Bri and I drank most of it.

We found one geocache and then a second one before heading out of town. We were back on the road in no time and realized we still had quite a while before we were supposed to meet Russ in Sioux Falls. Melly had slept when we crossed the state line so we had to find a state line sign to get her picture by. We drove into Jasper and weren’t sure if we had missed the sign but then we noticed a sign that said “State Line three miles”. We took a little detour just so we could take a picture by the sign.

Enough time for Garretson and Devil’s Gulch. This place is great and the cost is right; it is free. We left a donation and we also left the ladies in the car. Melly came with us this time and we walked the ½ mile loop around the Gulch. Afterward we parked the car close enough to the sign and made them get out so we could get a picture of all of us near the sign. All we had to do was balance the camera on the car and set the timer. Not the best, but not too bad either.

Arriving in Sioux Falls and we still had over an hour so we drove to Falls Park. We were hoping to get Madders a gift, but they didn’t have anything she would enjoy. We did take some pics at the top of the observation tower and near the falls. Again, our two ladies didn’t get out of the car and Melly was asleep again.

We got to the restaurant almost 30 minutes early, but Russ showed up early as well so we were able to get seated quickly. We ate and visited until almost eight P.M. It was a nice leisurely meal and we were near the bathroom and away from the main flow of traffic.

Ahead of us was the drive back to Madison, on to Mone town then back to Madison. We dropped off Bri and Melly as Melly was getting tired of being in the car. She had been really good for most of the day and had even let her mom enjoy her meal, she just sat in a high chair while we ate.

Knowing we had to pack up and wanted to get away early the next morning we didn’t want to stay up too late.

What's good about Tuesday?

Breakfast was the same, again we dropped Bri and Melly off. This time we picked up Terrie before we picked up Auntie Dee. Then we drove to Sioux Falls. We planned on meeting Terry’s daughter-in-law at one for lunch and we had about an hour to kill so we drove farther south and drove by their house and also around the graveyard where their baby daughter was buried just a short time ago. Terry showed us a photo album the hospital had put together for them as a memento of this little angel. She explained that they were able to hold her and spend time with her before they had to let her go. They were dealing very well with their loss. She told us about a dragon fly and also a butterfly that visited them at their homes after her death. She felt that these two incidents weren’t mere coincidence that they were both a sign from their little angel to let them know she is alright.

For lunch Auntie Dee told us she wasn’t hungry – something we had heard everytime we talked about food. She did tell us she could eat dessert though. I gave her part of my meal and then she had a little sundae. She also drank some Pepsi, but didn’t like it too well. She is not used to fountain sodas and so it tasted funny to her.

We drove back to Madison and stopped to visit Tessie before going to the picnic that had been arranged. The weather prediction was for rain, but by that evening it was perfect. It was amazing the number of people that showed up for this impromptu affair. It was potluck and the table was loaded with all sorts of dishes and way too many different desserts. We took pictures of different groups and some candid shots. We got pictures with Melly and some of her cousins. We also took a picture of mom and her brother and sister. Afterward Uncle Joe’s daughter took Auntie Dee back to Mone town, which saved us another trip and allowed us to go to bed a little early. Well that was the plan, but abe called me and told me that we needed to email some pics from the Boy Scout Encampment to someone. This would have been easy except that the internet connection in the room was not working. I fought with it for about thirty minutes before I realized that it was no use and finally went to bed about midnight.

Monday, Monday

Breakfast at the hotel – biscuits and gravy, sausage, and waffles. Then we dropped Bri and Melly off with GG Abraham. GG Carter and I traveled to Mone town to spend the day with Auntie Dee. We picked up Auntie Dee and took her to Uncle Joe’s home. He wanted to take his sisters to lunch so we loaded up two walkers and one cane and drove to the local café. They have senior “dinner” (which is at noon). For three dollars they each got a small bowl of grapes and cantaloupe, a hamburger patty, mixed veggies, a baked potato, a slice of bread and a cup of milk. Quite a bargain, since I’m not a senior yet they brought me a half hot beef sandwich – one slice of bread with sliced roast beef, a scoop of mashed potatoes covered in nice brown gravy, no sign of a vegetable anywhere. It was really good though and the waitress brought me a fruit cup just to be nice.

After lunch we loaded everyone up and went for a drive. We drove up the hill and by the rock, then past the cemetery and on to Lake Badus. As we were driving we remembered that Aunt Mary’s old house was not standing where it was supposed to be. It was there in June when we came back to visit but this time when we drove by the only thing left were the trees and the windmill. We decided to drive up the driveway and see what had happened to the house. I left the sisters and brother in the car and walked over to the house. It was obvious that it had been burned. Apparently the land had been sold recently and the new owners were trying to clear the land. The only thing left is the rock basement. I took a few pictures and we were down the road to Lake Badus and the Badus cemetery. Next we drove by Auntie Dee’s home where we stopped and took pictures of her red kitchen ceiling.

The next leg of our trip took us by the Lutheran church and on to Madison where we drove past the golf course and Prairie Village then through Lake Herman State Park. Our next stop was at McDonald’s, it was around three P.M. and all of the handicapped parking was taken so we parked as best as possible and unloaded two walkers and one cane and went inside. We all had a hot fudge sundae with nuts and a small glass of water. At quite a few tables there were people sitting around playing cards.

We loaded back up and returned to Mone town to drop off Uncle Joe. We had to stop at the assisted living home to pick up some stamps. While we were pulling out we noticed some people standing there and realized that they were relatives so we had to stop and visit with them. One of them had come all the way from St. Paul to spend time with mom since she was in the area.

Then we drove back towards Madison and stopped at one of mom’s old friends along the way. She showed us a book that she had written from her years of teaching in one room schools. During part of that time she taught at the Abraham school and actually had abe as one of her students. She had pictures in this book as well and we asked her if we could get a copy of it. We plan on visiting with her another year and going through the pictures she has, some of them from her high school years with mom as a young girl and others from her teaching years. Her memory is extremely sharp and it will be fun to see what she remembers from teaching abe and his brother.

GG Abraham brought supper to us in the hotel. Afterwards we took Auntie Dee back to Mone town and visited with Aunt Florene for a few minutes before returning back to get some sleep before our next thrilling day.

One Day at a Time

nmnmnm,mn,nm,nm,,, , (Melly wrote this and so this must be what she thinks about air travel and SD)

After leaving cool town a little later than we planned we arrived at the airport and walked right up to the counter to check in. We were there in plenty of time, but then the plane ended up leaving almost an hour late. While we were waiting we noticed that they gave us different seats than the ones we had requested. They would have been okay except we needed two aisle seats and they put us all on the same row. Since we had to pay extra for choosing seats I did ask them why they moved us. They ended up putting us in the front row, which has a few benefits - more leg room, but your carry on stuff has to be stowed overhead as there is no where to store it under the seat in front of you.

Even though we were an hour late taking off, we arrived only about 30 minutes late. The flight was great for the most part and melly slept most of the trip. We took some great pictures of clouds, and letters we could see on the ground, etc. I wanted to post some of these wonderful pics, but my card reader isn't working so we'll have to see what we can find in the thriving metropolis we are in.

To our hotel and now time to relax - more tomorrow.

Good news for Abe

We called Garmin to find out what hope we had of restoring our broken GPS unit. They were very friendly and told me that we just need to send it in as it is still under warranty. So only the cost of shipping to repair it. Quite a substantial savings.

I also asked them about our other two units, they had both quit working about the same time last fall which really didn't make sense. I told them what they were doing and the tech told me that he could solve that problem easily. He told me that the government had change something about their satellites which made the WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) function not work, the unit would then shut down. He said the solution was simple - just turn off WAAS or update the software and they would work again.

So now we should be set and it only took a thirty minute phone call.

Camping and serving

So several months ago one of the men in CG asked us to help with a Boy Scout Encampment in June. They wanted us to do a geocaching activity for the Varsity scouts. You can imagine this peaked my interest and so we readily agreed. We went to the area in May and picked out places to put our caches. We were told to go across Long Lake from the boat ramp and set up there. So we drove the very primitive road around the lake to the far side and found perfect places for our three - two part caches. Plus a practice cache. I wrote a story with clues for the boys and encrypted the entire thing. They would get the decoder at the first cache and then have to solve to find the second part. We had to do three different caches as there would be three groups on each of the three days that we were there - nine groups in all. So needless to say I had to create three different puzzles and then encrypt each of them. I spent well over ten hours doing all of this. Fast forward to June 1st.

We got to the mountains late afternoon as we had to take one of the scouts with us. After finding a campsite and getting everything set up we made supper. At about eight o'clock it started to get cold. I decided to go into the tent and read a book until bedtime. During the night it got really cold - low 40s and we had to rethink the way we had our bed made.

The next morning it was nice and warm as we were making breakfast in complete contrast to the night before. We got to the lake early to set everything up. It was at this moment that we realized that this lake has two boat ramps. The first ramp - which we didn't notice the last time we were here - made a lot more sense as the correct side as the lake was narrower here. So we drove around the other end of the lake and got to where we knew they would float across in the rafts that they would make. It was also way too far to where we had originally marked our places. The places that would go along with the encrypted clues that I had spent so much time on. So, plan B. We picked out new places and I went ahead and quickly created some math problems then encrypted those. The theme was Book of Mormon- the Power Within so we went with clues like - Take the number of Stripling Soldiers and divide that by 20... We watched the first group build their rafts and paddle over to us. Our cool boys made it across first.

As the other two teams arrived we asked the leaders if they had brought their shoes, or their gps units. They had some shoes, but no gps units. Fortunately we had two so we had the boys with shoes go in two groups and gave them directions on how to locate the caches.

We asked them to tell the raft instructor to tell the groups on the next two days that they needed to bring shoes and their gps units.

After this wild and crazy day we went back to our campsite and grilled a steak and sauteed vegetables with rice. Back in bed by eight as it was getting cold again (for this desert rat). We had noticed the cattle mooing the night before and this night they were even louder. The moon was getting full and the coyotes were also howling, the elk was bugling. It was a long noisy night.

The next day we decided to go do a little geocaching of our own in the area. We found an area with four caches within a short distance in a beautiful canyon area. One of the caches referenced this bridge which was part of the old highway. While I was signing the log, abe was holding the gps and it slipped out of his hand. It only dropped a few feet, but landed just wrong. The screen ended up burned out. This didn't make for a very happy day for him. We went back to our side of the lake and waited for our second group of boys. This group was small and we only sent out two teams again. Most of them had their shoes this time. We loaded up the makings of one of the rafts into our truck and took it around to the other side as it was too windy for them to actually paddle it back. During this adventure we managed to lose one of the center covers of our wheel - not a big thing, but now we are missing two.

Back to our campsite and we noticed that the ranch which was just a mile or so to the east of us must have released some water because we were now close to a stream. To add to our cattle elk coyote serenade we now had frogs croaking.

Thursday morning - our last day. I had left my phone off the entire time hoping that everything was going okay at home. abe told me that he was getting a signal in camp so I decided to go ahead and see if my phone was working. Just as it connected I noticed that I had a voice message. It was work telling me I needed to call the principal to straighten something out. I had to make two phone calls to set everything right. Amazing how the phone worked at just the right time.

When we got to the lake we visited with the raft instructor before going around the lake. The wind was extremely strong and the first try at raft building was not successful. In fact one of the rafts ripped apart as soon as it hit the water and two of the barrels that they were using floated over to us. They finally were able to try something different and made it over to us. This time we had three groups so the third time worked the best.








We ended up at M&S house before we came home and went on a caching adventure there - but that is another long story.

A few May flowers

At first glance - you see cherry blossoms - then you notice the nice long thorns among the beautiful flowers. So you know better than to put your nose too close for a sniff.

Just an ironwood blooming - telling abe that it is time to go fish the big cats in the salt river - or so the legend goes.





We have had too many dry years here and so with a wet Spring the saguaros are trying to make up for time lost by putting on flowers everywhere. They are very interesting indeed this year.


The desert is truly putting on its finest and we have been able to go out to enjoy it all.