Happy Birthday DAN

Too many more candles and Dan the Man won't be able to stand this close to his cake. Fun was had by all celebrating his birthday. This post is a little late but the sentiment remains the same ...
Happy Birthday Dan!

19th Anniversary of my 50th Birthday

It took 10 days but I finally got to open my birthday presents. Mom cooked a great meal and as you can see in the pictures, I had a very festive cake but alas it had the wrong numbers on the candles ... they should have been 50+ not, egad "69". Guess who had as much fun as anyone!

Thanks to everyone for remembering.

Love,

Dad/Grandpa/Great Grandpa

Siblings in AZ

Charlie is helping me learn how to post a blog. This is a picture from 2006 when my siblings came to AZ. We always have so much fun together--we just wish we would have started years ago!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It is a happy day in Maryland!! Happy Birthday to both Josh (13th) and Deborah (14th)!!! October is a busy month for the wards! Hope you guys have/had a great day!

Chas' Pig

A Pig. By Chas Ward

I think this fits in nicely with the family blog. Don't you?

Green Belts!

A green belt might be a fashion no no but Emma is proud to be wearing hers!

Emma and Crystal earned their green belts in Tae Kwon Do on thursday night. The first picture is of the ceremony where the belts get tied on. Emma has worked very hard and had to wait a long to time to get to this level. We are proud of her!

Photoshop Fun

A friend of mine designs web pages for bellsouth. Part of his job involves photoshopping images for his site. He grabbed a picture I took from the top of Signal Mountain at Sunrise and turned it into a watercolor. I actually keep an unedited copy of this picture on my desk at work but I really like the watercolor effect as well. I still giggle at the fact that there is now a cell phone tower on top of signal mountain.

The morning I took this picture I also saw a black bear. Only the fourth time I have ever seen a bear. I much prefer seeing bears from the car than walking by them on the trail like I did with David and Michael.

Here is the original picture to compare against:

Salsa Chicken

I tried my homemade salsa that I had canned yesterday and I was tremendously disappointed with it. I used apple cider as the recipe called for and the taste of the vinegar was evident. So there I sat with almost a quart of salsa that I didn't like! Crystal suggested that I make Salsa chicken so I did. It turned out to be pretty good and the kids even ate it. Here is the recipe if you are inclined. I think any type of salsa will work. Keep in mind that my salsa recipe ended up being pretty watery.

1 cup rice
3 chicken breasts
1 quart salsa
1 or 1 1/2 cups water (depending on how watery the salsa is)

Pour rice in bottom of the pan, cover with salsa and water. Bake covered for 1 hour at 350 or until chicken and rice are done.

When it is all done cooking the vegtables from the salsa end up on top of the rice with the baked chicken. The rice takes on the flavor of the Salsa which is a good thing.

A beautiful sound ...

We wanted you to not only SEE little Jaylin, but hear her too. Doesn't my grandaughter have tremendous lungs?

This is Jaylin at one day old.

WA Coast

OK I am a bit slow. We went to the WA coast for Labor Day. I forgot to bring a camera but the Friends we went with sent us some photos. The first photo is liberty inside an old tree in the Rain Forest This is a photo of us at Westport. I was seafood feast day. They were cooking in the town park what had been caught that morning. If you love sea food it was the best.
The place we stay is only a 1/2 hour from the rain forest. We went up for a hike. Lots of very big trees and very green. Of course we saw a little rain.

I bought a toy from a yard sale called a fox tail. We had a blast playing it. I had even more fun knowing that someone paid $15.00 for it and I got it for a buck. We stay on a Navy base when we go to the Coast. Does not cost lots of money and it is right on the ocean. You can see it in the background of this photo.

Three Cuties

Looks to me that these three were having a great time together but no one was having more fun than the little redhead in the middle. She definitely loves her cousins! Isn't it great to get together?
Dad/Grandpa/Great Grandpa