Great time in France

Breck and I had a great time in France, but BOY are we glad to be home! I'm having horrible jet lag and will tell you more about our trip later, but wanted to comment on all that has been posted since I've been gone!

Happy 92nd Grandma! Looks like a perfectly wonderful time was had by all. I'm sorry to have missed it.

There were so many posts from the WA1 and WA2 Wards that I don't know where to begin.

The gum wall is gross, ewww! I'm even more sure of it's grossiosity by the smile on Matt's face as he's adding to the "art". Looks interresting.

Seeing the kids circle the tree reminded me of our many great trips into amazing woods like these in Oregon and California.

Dave and Lana look cute in their picture on the coast. They're such a great couple, I love seeing picutures of them together and smiling big list that one.

I love the going back to school "uniforms" they look super comfy.

I like the post of Joe's departure... Joe, I understand staying too long. It's no fun, but you did a great job not getting frustrated. I'm glad you got to spend some much quality time with your grand parents and them with you. Not many people get that expeirience in life. Uncle Mike spent a great deal of time with his grandpa and always had a special bond with him because of it. I hope you have the same experience.

Finally. I love liberty's plastic teeth picutre. She always makes me smile... but watch out Liberty, there's a younger Ward on the way to steal your thunder, and she looks like she's going to have a lot of energy to burn they way she's dancing in her mommies tummy!

Thanks for all the fun blog entries, it made coming home feel like I really did.
Love to all.
C

Beijing 2008 - SIXTY Seconds - Day 10

Here is a video from YouTube about the paralympics.

Paralympics

I've been watching the Paralympics as they have been on http://www.universalsports.com Here is one of the races.

WA coast

I am slower than Dan but here more photos of our trip to the WA coast. We will all be seeing these sights soon

Matthew adding his gum to the gum wall. He was the only one we let touch the gum wall.

The grand pigs on the Pikes market pig
Lana and I on the beach by the Jetty

All the grand pigs climbed through this log. How many of the pigs will make it through?

If is not often this windy but it was that day. This is the beach we are staying on for the Sib.

While I was cleaning up the memory disc this morning on Mon's camera I found these pictures so I'm sharing them with you. This one is Joe at the Bountiful pool, which he went to often and enjoyed very much. There is a video on the memory stick that I can't download to the blog so here is what you missed: Joe is standing on the high dive and I'm telling him go, go, go Joe before the timer runs out ... he didn't and it did. So all you would have seen is Joe running to the end of the board, jumping up to bounce off the board and it ends. :-(.
This is just before Joe and I left for the airport ... we really enjoyed having him stay with us. It was probably a little long for him.

Here he is at the airport getting all his stuff ready for the long flight home.

Great Grandma is 92

We (Mom, Kristi, her friend Cris, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Kathy, Great Grandma and I) had a wonderful stay at the cabin over the Labor Day weekend celebrating Great Grandma's 92ND birthday. We had a tasty lunch on Jackson Lake (at our favorite place on the Lake; Moran Bay), ate dinner at the Lodge when the power went out at the cabin (and over a four state area but because the Lodge has a generator they had power), watched the bears along Pacific Creek three different times, viewed a fun movie and just sat around and talked while we watched it rain. I think all of us had as much fun on this trip as any of us ever had. It was SOOOOOO relaxing! Here are a few pictures so you can enjoy it vicariously.

Showing off the cake/cobbler with it's fancy candles ... we learned a long time ago not to put that many individual candles on the cake ... they turn into a bonfire!
To say Great Grandma had a good time and was very happy would be an understatement!
She blew out both candles so her wish will come true ... what was the wish? You can't tell or it won't come true!

Here's the gang ... Kriti's friend took the picture. As you can see a coat was much appreciated as the heat of summer came to an end over the weekend. Notice Mom's fancy new "HAT".

First day of school Puyallup Style!

Wednesday was the first day of shool here in Puyallup. I love the kids dress code. As you can tell it is a little bit cooler here in Washington on the first day of school than it was in Georgia. Shorts and a sweatshirt is the official garb of western washington in the summer. It feels GREAT!

Here is a link of last years pictures:

http://6screaminpigs.blogspot.com/2007/08/off-they-go.html


Also there is no bus in the equation here. The school is in our backyard so we walk the kids to school. The kids had a good/bad first week and are still learning to adjust to their new place. They like their teachers and are working on making new friends. I think the school they are in is going to be great and they will be happy in the end.

Dancing Queen

Yesterday Dan and I went to the hospital here in Puyallup and had another ultrasound. This time we were able to get a lot of 3D pictures and it was so cool! I have used all my techy talents(very few) to make a video for you all. I just can't get over the awesome technology that allows us to see the baby in such detail. We saw all four chambers of her heart, the blood going in and out of her cord and her perfect little lips! We all can't wait to meet this little girl!

Pacific Beach Labor Day weekend

Greetings from Washington!! This last weekend David was kind enough to invite us over to Pacific Beach where we will hold the Sib. We had a great time visiting and enjoying Washington. We had fantastic weather which we may not have when we go back. We were able to enjoy walks on the beach, driving on the beach, the kelpers parade and many other such things. The most amazing things to me were the rain forest and the tide pools. We will see the rain forest for sure while we are there and I hope we can see the tide pools. The diameter and height of some of the trees in the rain forest was amazing. When we got home I commented that none of the trees near our house seem tall anymore. We still feel like tourists and we were blown away by the scenery and beauty of the Washington coast. Just one bit of advice though. If you plan on getting in the water on the beach bring your wetsuit! It didn't rain while the new WA Wards were there (we have to get a new nickname) but we saw a yearly precipitation chart. All I can say is bring your rain coat in October.

Forks WA

We were in Forks WA last week. For those of you who don't know the book Twilight is set in Forks. It is Shelby's favorite book. The book is about a vampire family.

All of us in the rain forest
A great shot of what too much rain can do to your trees.

The main character Bella's truck.

Bella's dad is the chief of police

I had a Bella Burger in Forks it came with Teeth
Dr Cullen is a Vampire

This is first beach where the Vampires can't go but be careful of the waves

We are BEAR Aware

Three years ago three Grizzly bears were born in the Moran area of Wyoming and on our recent trip to the cabin we saw two of the triplets (they have grown a lot in three years haven't they?) just below the dug way on the Pacific Creek road about 3 miles from our cabin. (we saw their brother a few weeks a go at String Lake when Dave's family was at the cabin ... see David's earlier bear posting). While we weren't as close as this picture looks (telephoto lens and computer enhancement does wonders) but we had a great view from about 200' for about 20 - 30 minutes. During this time we saw the bear with the blond face (top in this picture) make a mock charge at her sister and I was amazed at how quickly she moved! She covered 30' in about one second. If you ever have a bear charge you; you had better start spraying your bear spray when they start charging, or it may be too late.
This was our first view of them as they crossed Pacific Creek. Our first clue that there was something to see was that several cars parked on top of the dug way were already stopped and looking.
After watching them in the willows just below the dug way for about 15 minutes they crossed the road right in front of us and then started munching Service berries 50' above the road. It's a bit hard to see the bear in this picture because she is laying on her stomach munching away. They eat the berries, the leaves and the stems ... guess that kind of pruning encourages next years growth.

After eating berries for a while one of the bears went looking for her sister and when she found her, she again made a mock charge like the one previously described ... however, this one wasn't as aggressive as the first but still pretty menacing if you were on the other end of the charge.

This experience was far and away the best bear viewing any of us has ever had!