3-in1

Hello everybodeee,
It has been a very busy Fall. Work for me (and Lyn) has taken off and I find myself quite swamped.
I am now finishing the second of 2 large projects. The first can been seen on my website (link on left) and this one will be up soon.
In our last post I mentioned that Henry and I would be making our yearly trip. Well we did and we had an amazing time. i was going to pull the plug on the trip because the weather was terrible on Friday, but I decided to push thru and take the chance that it would clear up by Sat. And it did, and in a major way! After we spent the night, the next morning we could see all the way north to the San Juan Islands, and all the way south to Mt. St. Helens! It was fantastic. It actually cleared up during the night, and it was a full moon. The granite cliffs surrounding the lookout appeared as if they were snow. We had such a good time. As always I am impressed with Henry's Hiking abilities, He did this unassisted, at night, by himself, It was 3.2 Miles, 2224 ft. elev. gain!

This is what we woke up to!

This is where we spent the night, up in that little lookout building.

As for other news, our beloved Trooper died! It has been a sad time for all. OK! Mostly me, but still sad. It blew a head gasket, and we have decided to not invest any more $$$ into it. Since that was our only car, we had to replace it. We decided to get something very reliable, roomy, and comfy to drive. We found a mint 95 Mercedes E320 wagon. It rides like it's on a cloud, and it is so nice to have amenities like leather, power accessories and a sunroof. It even gets around 25 mi/gal. freeway.


15 Days ago my grandfather passed away. It was a welcome passing as he had fought with cancer for a long time and suffered much. I was glad that he was able to finally be taken home. But I discovered at the funeral that I am sad that it will be a long time till I get visit with him again. On Wednesday the 20th we drove to Utah to attend the funeral. The drive to UT is always hard. It took 16 hours in the car. I've stated my feelings for that drive before, so I wont say how much I detest it.
The funeral itself was really quite peaceful and pleasant. The weather was nice just for that day. I loved hearing the stories about grandpa, and loved seeing how much he has affected the lives of so many friends and family. One man sang on old negro spiritual that I found to be very touching, as well as beautiful. It illustrates the fact that life extends beyond this world. Listen here. Here is a pic of the kids at the Logan temple after the burial.

[If you like any of the pics you can click on them, which makes them bigger, then right click, cut-n-paste.]
The next day we took advantage of being all the way down in UT to visit Lyn's Fam. Here are the kids waiting for the train to take us down to the Grandparents.

We had a very enjoyable time, and wish we had more of it. I especially enjoyed getting to know my Bro & Sis In-law Peter and Charlotte better. I am so excited for them and their future. The world needs more people like them outside of UT.
Yesterday we spent the day readying ourselves for Halloween. We carved pumpkins, and made chili, and a costume for Fern. Since Henry was a pencil last year he had the idea that Fern should be an eraser with him. And of course if Henry suggests it, it's gospel! So here is our little band of office supplies.

And our spooky pumpkins, including my barfing pumpkin I made with my drill.


Anyhow, we are excited for the upcoming holidays, and are very excited to have a nostalgic Christmas an the farm. This house should be awesome for Christmas.
We love all of you, and hope that you find yourselves back here in the Great Northwest. If you do, please know that you will have a home away from home at our house.
Happy Fall to you.