My adventure for today

Here is a little video of my work today.

Found photos

I found these photos in a box of memories... they made me laugh and smile. Thought you'd enjoy them too. Oh they grow up so fast... I can't believe it... this feels like just yesterday to me.





I don't remember all the details we probably went to a photo booth at the K-mart then got ice cream at Pace's Dairy Ann. Josh and Clay had days of their own as well, but those photos are still MIA. Someday they'll show up.

I'm glad that my neices and nephews have been (and more importantly wanted to be) active particpants in my life.

Respect the Bird Washington Style

We had a great thanksgiving weekend with David and Lana coming from Spokane Stacey coming down from her place in Granite Falls.  We got together on Thursday and had a fantastic meal.  Everyone brought a little bit to the meal and it was lots of fun. Some of us woke up early on Friday morning to go shopping and there were some good bargains out there.  I was surprised the bargains didn't go faster but I guess people are being more careful with their money right now.   The cousins had a great time sleeping downstairs and NEVER went to bed early.  We took this picture Friday night after going swimming at a nearby (sorta) pool.  It is officially ok now to get out your Christmas decorations!

On the way home from the pool David drove by the Crispy Creme and was tempted by the 'Hot' sign.  We ended up with a couple dozen (sorta) hot doughnuts.

 

I(t was a great Thanksgiving in Washington.  I hope everyone had the same experience. :)

Guess who now owns a Hyde Drift Boat?

That's right I finally did it! I've been saving money for some time so I could buy a drift boat and while mom and I were in Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving I asked the Hyde Fractory to open their doors and I picked out our new (used) boat (mom's not quite as excited as I am). They agreed to store it over the winter so come June we'll take our first trip. It's set up to handle 5 adults on a float trip and 3 - 4 when fishing. Lets make sure we plan a fishing trip next fall when the water level drops in the Snake.
A Happy fisherman I am,
Dad

Watching the sun set at 8,500'

You have to look at these pictures in reverse order to get the real effect but this is what a sunset looks like from 8,500' as it sets into the Pacific Ocean. Pretty awesome!

Catalina Island

I don't have any current news to share, so I thought I'd upload this from 2001...

Mom, Dad and Grandma came out to California to visit Breck and I when we lived there in Long Beach. Along with Auntie we went to Catalina Island. It was a beautiful day. Road a very fast ferry boat across the ocean and took a tram ride around the town. We visited the botanical garden and walked and walked and walked enjoying the sites. It was a lot of fun.







We also got to see the Lion King in Los Angeles while they were out...


The whole experience was one of the highlights of my life.

Great Grandpa's Thoughts

I came accross this address that Great Grandpa gave in 1960 and felt that all of you would be interested in his thoughts. No one love his country more than he did and he continued to be passonate in that regard all his life. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Dad

Address Given by Charles E. Ward (Great Grandpa), President of the Utah Manufactures Association, in 1960, at the Annual Conference of Intermountain Industry

Some eight score years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are crested equal. For many years now, we have been engaged in a great internal strife, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

With business management, with labor leaders, and with public officials, the personal integrity and equality envisioned in our father has too often been forgotten. “What’s in it for me?” “How much can I get, and how little can I do?” Too frequently, we find this is our code, as we developed into a “Society of Pressure”. Business Management pressures itself and its executives, who in turn pressures the worker – to perform their job better for the dollar paid them, so that keen competition can be met on equal footing; labor leaders pressure their members for more funds for various “needs” and in turn pressure management for higher wages, often attracting impractical measures; government increasingly pressures the very people who are supposed to be running it, for more money in the form of taxes – frequently for the good of the people, but too often to insure and perpetuate outdated bureaucracies, and, government too, has created so many department and divisions of departments, all of which, maintain such a steady flow of instructions, rules, and orders, that even their own people in the field do not have time to keep up to date.

In our “Society of Pressure” we have become so enmeshed with conferences, hearings, red-tape and restrictions that it is utterly astounding that any of us have the time left to properly conduct our businesses in even a superficial manner, and, if all this “Society of Pressure” continues to undermine us economically, we, as a people and a nation are ultimately doomed. Just as Carthiage, Athens, Rome, and every other great civilization fell because of economic chaos, selfishness and greed, so will we.

President Bannow, Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: As you can observe, tonight I have taken liberally from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address – one of the greatest speeches in the history of our nation, by one of that nation’s greatest sons. It is true we are menaced by the world power outside our borders, but we are likewise menaced, perhaps to a greater degree, right here at home – because we no longer fight back at the liberties taken with our liberties; we remain pacified, allowing one wrong to be heaped upon the other, hoping perhaps someday that it will “all go away”, and we can once again operate our businesses in a climate of true free enterprise. If the liberties taken with Lincoln tonight have sparked just one or two or ten of you here to think about the situation, and to realize its seriousness, and then start doing something about it, I am sure that he would approve.

Our “Society of Pressure” must concentrate pressure on the return to true democracy. For you will recall that Mr. Lincoln concluded his Gettysburg Address with this sentence: “That, this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.”
Thank You.

The "Dorm".

I was going to wait a few days to blog this video to give you all a chance to jump in here with a non-Dan/Crystal post, but since Dad asked about it..... I am starting to think you all are either too busy to share or not doing a bloomin'thing!

Much ado about a closet

I learned this method of taking videos from Kate although I'm not nearly as funny as she is. Here is the finished results of our latest project. It adds a bunch of storage which is nice.

My Mountain My Mountain

Today was a beautiful sunny day (dreary winters my foot) and the mountain was out. As pretty as the mountain is all the time in the winter it is truly something to behold. In my unofficial rain guage we have received about four inches in the last two weeks. I'm not sure what the conversion for rain to snow is but the mountain has turned pure white. The few sunny afternoons we have had here provided amazing views. The sun hit the moutain at an angle that highlights the ridges and makes it even more beautiful. Crystal and I went out for an evening drive to see it and ended up in a neighborhood that was started but is on hold for better economic times. This provided unobstructed views of the mountain. Crystal even climbed on top of a 10 foot tall boulder to enjoy the view. (how many 8 month pregnant women can do that!!)

I'm sure there is a time coming where it rains for 10 days straight but so far we have had a pleasant and beautiful november. I hope the weather is nice when our company comes next week for turkey day!

Cascades Hike

Katie and I went for a hike in the rain on Saturday.  We were near a small little town called Enumclaw.  We arrived at the state park quite by accident having seen the brown signs for the state park on our way somewhere else.  It was raining a bit but we both had on waterproof jackets so off we went.  We were very enamored with the little hike we took and can't wait to take the family back when it is sunny and we can have the canoe out on the lake.  The park has everything a family could want, a lake for swimming and fishing, playground and picnic tables.  We ended up making short order of the 1.5 mile hike (walk?) but enjoyed it immensely.  The thing I loved the most about the hike was the smell of the pines in the air.  It was so fresh and clean.   It was a wonderful afternoon to be outside.  Just after we got off the trail it stopped raining and we enjoyed a great drive home.