Donuts with Mallory

Here's a picture with Mallory.

I met her before class at her elementary school and we had donuts together.  Malachi had to work and couldn't come so I got to fill in for him.  After donuts she showed me her classroom.  We had an enjoyable time together.

Intruder in the house

We had a break in at our home last night.

 This large dog raced into our house.  He was terrified from all the fireworks going on outside.  Our garage door was open and when Caleb came in and shut the garage door he was surprised to find a large dog hiding in the garage.  The dog ran inside the house and Caleb couldn't stop him and didn't want to slam the door in his face either.

 The dog just paced about the house nervously, occasionally laying down in a dark corner in the living room or in the laundry room, but then getting up when more loud fireworks went off outside.  He never did growl or bark at any of us but would run if we tried to get close enough to see if he had dogtags on.  Jacquelyn said not to put him out until the fireworks were over because he would be too scared.

 So we just left him alone and he paced around the house for about three hours.  Poor fella.

Finally when the fireworks had pretty much stopped we let him out.  Our neighbors said they recognized him and Caleb went and got his owner, who lived two houses down to the right of us.  He didn't speak English and kept saying "no dog", until the neighbor girl showed him a picture she ran and took on her phone and then he came and got his dog.  The dog was so happy to finally see his master.

Wildwood Park then Chocolate Fountain and Cake

On the Father's Day weekend several of the children and grandchildren came up to visit.

 Doranda and her family were up early on Saturday and we decided to go for a hike at Wildwood Park.  Here's Doranda with her five children by the waterfall - Leon, Tucker, Penelope, Scarlett, Calista, and Doranda.

 We parked at one end and hiked over to the exercise trail.  Caleb joined us there.

 The trail winds through wild woods and has various stops to do exercises.  This is a stretching post.

 Scarlett on the monkey bars.

 Penelope, Leon, Scarlett, and Tucker at the balance beams.

 After the exercise trail they walked on some fallen logs and then we looked for and found a geocache.

 Then later that night Talitha and Tianna with her family came over for a big dinner.  Talitha made this massive chocolate cake.  We had three fathers there: Bob, Jim, and I.  In this picture is Tianna and Talitha, Bob, Tucker, and if you look you can see James and Evan.

There was also a chocolate fountain that Tianna brought.  James and Scarlett in this picture.

Dallen's Graduation

A while back we went to Dallen's graduation from High School.

 Here we are with Dallen after the graduation ceremony.  He graduated from Mead High School in Spokane.

 Dallen dressed in cap and gown waiting in line waiting to get his diploma.

 Dallen at the graduation.  We had a good view.

Dallen with his mom.  Congratulations Dallen, now is's on to bigger and better things.  We love you and we're proud of you.

New Grandchild Calista

Last month we went to the Baby Blessing for Calista.

 Here we are with Doranda and her family.  Can't believe she has five children now.  They have a wonderful family.

 Little Calista all dressed up for her baby blessing.

 Big sister Penelope all smiles.

 Scarlett is the one that seems to love holding her little baby sister.  (I didn't take a lot of pictures so I borrowed a few from Doranda's blog.  But I couldn't leave out Scarlett since she is the one that is always wanting to hold Calista so much.)

 Brothers Leon and Tucker with Calista.

Welcome to the world Calista.  You have a wonderful family.  Great parents and four loving siblings.  You will have a good childhood.  And we are happy to by a part of it as your grandparents.

Minnesota trip to see Isaac and family

Last month we made a trip to Minnesota and got to have a long visit with Isaac and Kim and their little children Joslyn and Dorian.

 We had never met Dorian in person before and he's already walking.  And Joslyn grew a lot while we where on a mission.  She can carry on quite a conversation now.  She loves to have people read to her and she is learning Japanese.

 One of the first days there we went to the Minneapolis zoo.  They have a great zoo with lots of natural habitats.  I especially liked the baboons and gorillas.

 They had this bronze statue in memory of these giant turtles they used to let walk around the zoo.   Jacquelyn remembers seeing them as a little girl and sitting on them.  We weren't sure whether or not to believe her when she told us the story, and then we saw a plaque about it.

 Here's Isaac and family with Goldy the Gopher, mascot of the University of Minnesota, where Isaac is attending graduate school to be a professor in economics.  Did you know the University of Minnesota is the second largest university in the country?  Isaac just finished two years, which are the academic classes.  Now he has to do his research on a dissertation project.

 We saw the mighty Mississippi river.  Quite large even up in Minnesota near the source of the river.

 One day they took us out for a hike in the park by Minnehaha Falls.  Minnesota is so green and beautiful this time of year.  It really made Jacquelyn feel a little homesick, if you can believe it.  She said she wouldn't mind living there again for a while, just not in the winter.

 We went to this ice cream store where they don't understand the concept of small.  This is actually a child's size, which some of us had a hard time finishing.  We went went there twice.

 This is the famous spoon at Sculpture Park.

 A new sculpture, the blue rooster.  The park was closed so we couldn't get too close but we walked around it.

 Joslyn and Cousin Bella.  One Sunday after church we drove down to Rochester where Rosemerry was hosting a family get together.  They must of had 20 relatives there.  The food was great, pulled pork and sirloin and lots of side dishes and desserts.  The weather was great and we played "corn hole".  Jacquelyn and I beat Roger and Marilyn in a contest, then we played against Isaac and Kim and we even beat them.

Isaac and Joslyn at Teddy Bear park in Stillwater, Minnesota.  The kids loved climbing on the statues.

 Dorian on one of the giant teddy bears.  They look cuddly but there are actually made of concrete.

 One day we went to see a Twins games.  They lost to the Houston Astros but it was a lot of fun seeing the stadium and the game and all the excitement.

Almost every day we were going on a walk somewhere.  We put in a lot of miles and had lots of fun.  We had a great time.  Kim and Isaac were wonderful hosts and we had a great time.  Joslyn and Dorian are so much fun.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful grand children.

Timber

We had to have two of the giant trees cut down from our home in Puyallup.  They were encroaching on the yard, the roots were tearing up the lawn, and one was pushing the sidewalk up.  Simply put, they had gotten too big and Jacquelyn said they had to go.

Before picture from the front.

 After picture.  Can you pick out the two trees that are gone.

 Another before picture from the front at a different angle.

 After picture.  Easy to see the missing front yard tree.

 Back yard picture before.

 Back yard picture after.

 For the big Douglas Tree in the back yard the cutter worked his way up lopping off limbs one by one.

 Getting pretty high.

 Meanwhile there were three other workers hauling branches out to the street to the wood chipper.

 Almost to the top.

 Ready to cut off the last part.

 Timber!!!!!!

 Now he just worked his way back down the trunk cutting off sections one by one.

 Almost to the ground.  The irises at the bottom were crushed.  But they didn't even scratch a limb or leaf on the Roddie or small Japanese Maple.

 For the Spruce tree in front they took a different approach.  They tied up a guild line to pull it into the street when it fell.

 Did some cuts near the base.

 Timber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Then they just chopped it all up.

 The branches all went into the wood chipper but we got to keep the logs from the trunk.

 Stump number 1 in the back yard.

 Stump number 2 in the front.  A stump grinder will be coming out a different day to grind up this stump and the roots extending into the yard.

We lost two trees but we have plenty of others, and Jacquelyn's irises are blooming so all is well.