A Visit from Nathanael and Mary-Anne and Jacob

Nathanael and Mary-Anne came by for a visit on their vacation and stayed several days.  We were real happy to see them, and especially their baby boy Jacob.

Jacob is just 7 months old.  He is such a cute baby and smiling all the time.

Here's Jacob with us, the proud grandparents.  We don't get to see him as much as we would like since they live out in Utah.  Jacob really liked us though.

Here's Nathanael and Jacob roasting hot dogs in the back yard.

More pictures of Jacob.  He's really photogenic.

Jacob is such a fun little baby.

Here is three generations of the boys.  Jacob, dad, and granddad.

Jacob and I posing for a great shot.  (Nathanael is actually behind me propping up Jacob so he doesn't fall over backwards)

Thanks for coming to visit Nathanael and Mary-Anne.  We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing you, and all the other kids and grandkids that came by to visit too while you were here.

Boeing

I've been working at Boeing for 30 years now and received the following service award.

First we spent a little over five years at the Boeing facilty in Wichita, Kansas, and then here at various Boeing facilities in and around Kent, Washington.  Seems like a long time.

Graduation from High School

 Caleb graduated from Emerald Ridge High School on Saturday, Class of 2012.

 He got honors awards for two classes.  Science and Natural Resources.

 And Honors for Band.

 Graduation was at the Puyallup Fairgrounds.  Here is the Senior Class marching in.

 Half of the grads.  Can you pick out Caleb?

 The speakers stage and the diplomas.

 Caleb watching the ceremony.

 Caleb graduating and receiving his diploma.

 Talitha came to watch and celebrate the event with Caleb.

 Also Malachi with his two children Andrew and Mallory.

 Tianna drove up all the way from Spokane, here with Evan and Ashton. 

Two proud parents.  Great job Caleb, you did good.

Now we have all 8 of our children finished with High School.  Four went to Rogers HS and four went to Emerald Ridge HS.  What are we doing to do now that all our children are grown up?

Caleb's Graduation from Pierce College

Caleb graduated from Pierce College on Friday, June 15, 2012 with an associates degree.

Class of 2012.  He went to Pierce College for his classes as part of high school in the running start program.

Graduation was at the Tacoma Dome.

Here is Caleb receiving his diploma after his name was read and shaking hands with the chancellor of Pierce College .

Caleb going through the line.

Picture with Dad.

 Picture with Mom.

Congratulations Caleb, that was great achievement.

Talitha's birthday

We had a family celebration for Talitha's birthday at our house the other day.

It was nice to have her over and to celebrate her birthday.  We had a fun time and some of her little nieces and nephews were there to say happy birthday.  Talitha and Elliott above and Talitha with Andrew and Mallory below.  And Talitha took Julia to get a pedicure.

It was great to have visitors all the way from Alaska.  This is Elliott our youngest grandson and this was the first time we got to meet him.  We were all surprised at how big he is.  He is not a little baby at all anymore.  He is about 5 months old already.

Julia was there too and also Rebecca.  Julia is growing up.  She is always so much fun.

We did Skype so they could talk to Joshua in Alaska on the computer.  We saw Ethan and Christian also and Ethan was talking and talking and talking.

Grandpa (me) with Julia and Elliott.  Elliott took right too us.

Also over to visit was Malachi and Layne with their children.  Andrew is always ready to have a good time.

And Mallory is so happy all the time.

Of course Caleb was there too and he took his share of punishment from the children.  He loves it.

Conni visiting

Jacquelyn's sister Conni Vale is up from Arizona for a visit.

On Saturday we went out to Snoqualmie Falls.  Earlier they went to the Farmers Market.  We also went to the outlet stores in Great Bend and drove over the I-90 floating bridge.

Above is a picture of the full waterfall.  Below is a closeup.  Snoqualmie Falls is very powerful and magnificient.  It's inspiring to see.

Below you can see some Rhodies in bloom.  Everything in real beautiful in Washington this time of year.

Mount Si

Yesterday we went on a hike to climb Mt. Si.

The trail was four miles going up and four miles down.  The weather was perfect for a hike; it was sunny all day and the temperature was around 70.  We were there early so it wasn't too hot and it was great in the trees.

 This is a view from half way up.

 This is a view from the top.

Caleb's friend Anthony.  We didn't know when we planned the hike that the scouts from our ward were also going up Mt. Si that day.  Caleb was going with them and they were planning to leave at five in the morning.  Then we got a text from Caleb - they needed more drivers.  So we had to hurry out to the church building early and help drive them.  There were six scouts and a leader and we kept passing them back and forth on the trail.  Jacqeulyn would not let them stay ahead of us.  I wanted to stay behind and not pass them up when they stopped for breaks but she would not.  They were going slow because on of them has asthma.  She thought we should not worry about what they were doing.  I thought it would make them feel bad.

Caleb feeding the birds up on top.  You can see how sunny and nice it was outside, even on top of the mountain.

 The birds were very friendly.

Jacquelyn and I on the top of Mount Si.